61st Annual STS (2001–2002)
Finalists
Siddharth Srivastava

LOUISIANA
Siddharth Srivastava, 17, of Baton Rouge, used support vector machines -- a recently developed machine-learning technique for identifying patterns -- to classify topographical features in Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanning (MSS) satellite images for his computer sciences entry in the Intel Science Talent Search. Sid developed a support vector architecture trained with 4,435 examples of pixel "neighborhoods" taken from MSS images. He believes that once his architecture is fully optimized it can be integrated into a complete remote sensing system that could be used, for instance, in locating water sources in arid areas, detecting early-stage forest fires, and identifying otherwise ambiguous objects in satellite images. Sid is first in his class of 264 at Baton Rouge Magnet High School. A competitive tennis player, he also plays first violin in the Louisiana Youth Orchestra and is a volunteer for the March of Dimes, Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen. He was a semifinalist in the North American Open Poetry Contest and a first-place winner in the Louisiana Science Olympiad. Born in India, Sid is the son of Drs. Ashok and Shashi Srivastava. He hopes to attend Harvard.