Google Sponsors our Young Innovators

In addition to being the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2010 Premier Sponsor and Silicon Valley Host, Google joined dozens of other companies, government agencies, and organizations as a Special Awards Organization.

“Our special awards focused on social impact, and using science and technology to improve the lives of others and giving back to the community. These are core values to Google—and we aim to use our own infrastructure and tools to empower educators and students,” Jordan Lloyd Bookey, K-12 Talent and Outreach at Google, said. “All of the Google judges had a lot of fun meeting the students and learning about their projects. In the end, we selected students whose projects could have the deepest and more scalable impact.”

Google intended to give away three $10,000 awards: CS Connect, for applying computer science to further scientific inquiry; The Future of Energy: contributing to a cleaner, brighter tomorrow; and Secret Change Agent, making our world a better place through innovative change. However, they were so impressed with the caliber of the Finalists that they decided just hours before the awards ceremony to also give six runner-up awards of $1,000 and an extra $10,000 prize in the Secret Change Agent category.

“It was tough to choose the winners; they were all amazing! That’s why we decided to give out even more awards than we had planned on the night of the ceremony. We added multiple prizes because we were so impressed with students and their submissions,” Jordan said. “We’re thrilled to see so many creators of tomorrow’s technologies with an understanding of how to use those technologies for good.”

William Lopes, who won one of the Secret Change Awards, said, “Talking to Google judges was great. Listening and exchanging ideas with them improved the way I see Science.”  William, who is from of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, researched a way to conduct wastewater treatment. He said of Google, “They motivated the development of practical research as a way to transform the society. It was very inspiring.”

These sentiments were echoed by Dheevesh Arulmani, the winner of the Future Energy Award, who said, “Receiving the Google award has been a stimulating prospect which has enticed a new vitality in my current research and future endeavors. A broader range of opportunities have become more prominent and the exuberance of this award has developed my desire to pursue a career in science and technology.”

Tony Ho, of San Jose, California, one of the runner-up recipients of the CS Connect Award, said of talking to the Google Special Award Judges, “It was very intimidating at first, but once our jitters disappeared, we talked to them with full confidence. It was a lot of fun!” Tony went on to interview for internship positions at Google. “I was surprised that workers at Google actually knew about my project and wanted to know more about it,” he said.  This summer, he worked as a software engineer intern at Google in New York City and is now studying computer science at Harvard.

“We believe that all students should have the opportunity to become active creators of tomorrow’s Technology,” Jordan said. “ISEF encourages students to create, and develop into the next generation of innovators. They will make the next Google in all of their respective fields.”

Intel ISEF 2010 Google Special Award Winners

CS Connect Award – $10,000 for applying computer science to further science inquiry field

• Finding the Minimum Energy Conformation of Protein-like Heteropolymers by Greedy Neighborhood Search
  • Joon Suk Huh, 18, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

CS Connect Award of $1,000

• Robust Displacement Estimation Employing Inexpensive Webcam Based Optical Flow.
  • Christopher Stephan Nielsen, Alberta, Canada
• Engineering a Novel Genetics-Based Early Disease Detection Mechanism Designed Using an Ontology-Driven Semantically Annotated Microarray Repository with Thermal Gradient Focusing Mass Spectrometry
  • Ritik Malhotra, 17, , San Jose, California
  • Tony Ho, 17, San Jose, California

The Future of Energy Award – $10,000 for the project that has the potential to shape the future of clean energy.

• Bio-Inspired Photonic Fuel Cell
  • Dheevesh Arulmani, 14, Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

The Future of Energy Award of $1000

• Decomposing Energy
  • Max Aaron Keller, 17, Alden-Conger High School, Alden, Minnesota
• Novel Method: Detecting High Energies in Sonoluminescence
  • Lyric Elizabeth Gillett, 18, Houston, Texas 

Secret Change Agent Award – $10,000 for the project that could create positive impact in their neighborhood and in the global society.

• Construction of a Continuous Flow SODIS System with PET Bottles Integrated to a Water and Waste-Water Treatment System
  • Karoline Elis Lopes Martins, 18, Belo Horizonte, SP, Brasil
• Utilization of the Fungus Aspergillus niger on Wastewater Treatment II
  • William Lopes, 20, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

Secret Change Award of $1,000

• Bacterial Silencing: The Discovery of Quorum Quenching Soil Microbes for the Development of Antimicrobial Compounds
  • Sonia Grace Sundar Rao, 17, Camdenton, Missouri
• Aqueous Extract of Lemon Leaves as a Novel Powerful Insecticide against Trialeurodes Vaporariorum (Whitefly)
  • Xiangbo Meng, 17,Beijing, China

• Read ISEF alumnus and Google employee Josh Weaver’s blog post on Intel ISEF 2010
• Read the official Google Blog Congratulating the Winners
• See all the Intel ISEF 2010 Special Award Winners
• Become and Intel ISEF Special Award Organization