Israeli students show off scientific prowess

Israeli students show off scientific prowess

Israeli high school students meet with President Reuven Rivlin before going overseas for major science competitions. (Photos by Sharon Altshul)
Israeli high school students meet with President Reuven Rivlin before going overseas for major science competitions. (Photos by Sharon Altshul)

Five budding teenage Israeli scientists were in Pittsburgh last week representing the Jewish state at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown.

The Intel ISEF is a program of the Society for Science & the Public and is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, according to its website.

More than 1,700 high school students from more than 70 countries, regions, and territories qualified in their respective homelands to showcase their independent research and compete for more than $5 million in prizes.

The five Israelis here to compete were among 12 student winners of competitions held in the 2015 Young Scientists Competition, organized by the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and supported by Intel. Five other teens will represent Israel in September in Milan for the European Competition for Young Scientists and Developers, and another will attend a special scientific summer camp in Germany.

The projects representing Israel at the fair were: “The Encoding of Predication in Topic-Prominent Languages” (Kedem Snir, Jerusalem); “Pressure and Blood Flow Regulating System Inside an Orthopedic Cast” (Betty Shamaev, May Shoshan, Ort Greenberg, Kiryat Tivon); “The Role of Transcription Factor Pax6 in Maintenance of Pancreatic Beta Cell Identity” (Noa Eden, Jerusalem); “Dechifat-1: Life Saver Satellite” (Yarden Aby Carmel, Herzliya); and “On the Growth and Relaxation of Viscous Fingering Structures” (Noam Youngerman, Jerusalem).

The work of all the participants was reviewed and judged by doctoral level scientists. Dozens of corporate, academic, governments and other science-focused sponsors provided support and awards.

The Israeli delegation fared well at the competition, with Shamaev and Shoshan winning a third place award of $1000 in the category of Biomedical and Health Sciences, and Eden winning a $500 fourth place prize in Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

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