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| The 3rd grand prize winners in the biomedical and health sciences category: Kenneth Antonio, Thea Tinaja and Marian Cabuntocan of Bayugan City. |
Three high school students from Bayugan National Comprehensive High School in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur won a third grand award prize of US$1,000 for their team project in the biomedical and health sciences category in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held 11-15 May 2015 in Pittsburgh.
The winning team of Kenneth Michael Angelo Natividad Antonio, 14, Marian Romero Cabuntocan, 16, and Thea Marie Laquinta Tinaja, 15, studied the potential of extracts from the integuments of the diamond back squid, a species that abounds in the locality, as source of neuroprotective and anti-stroke agents without causing adverse side effects on cardiac activity.
Antonio will be in Grade 9, and Cabuntocan and Tinaja in Grade 10 this coming school year under the K-12 program.
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| Angelo Urag of Butuan City with his project in material science. |
Two other young Filipino scientists were in the delegation to Pittsburgh. Angelo Grabriel Abundo Urag, 15, incoming Grade 10 student of Father Saturnino Urios University in Butuan City, synthesized superhydrophic copper stearate films using a one-step process. This is his second time to the ISEF; he competed in Los Angeles last year. Mary Carmelle Antonette Pedregosa Gindap, 16, incoming Grade 11 student of Iloilo National High School, Iloilo City, studied the antibacterial and anticoagulant properties of proteins from the skin and spine of Acanthaster planci, a marine animal species that feeds on and thereby destroys corals.
The Philippine delegation was part of approximately 1,700 young scientists selected from 422 affiliate fairs in more than 75 countries, regions and territories who converged in Pittsburgh. The five Filipino young scientists were the cream of regional finalists in the life and physical sciences categories during the National Science and Technology Fair (NSTF) of the Department of Education. The NSTF is the only ISEF-affiliated in the country, and the annual ISEF is a project of the Society for Science & the Public, which is based in Washington DC.
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| Carmelle GIndap of Iloilo City studied the potential benefits from the animal species that eats/threatens coral reefs. |
Around 600 of the ISEF participants received awards and prizes for their innovative research, including 20 “Best of Category” winners, who each received a US$5,000 prize.
From among these 20 'bests' came the 'best of the bests'. The top prize, the Gordon E. Moore award of US$75,000 went to 17-year-old Raymond Wang of Canada for his mechanical engineering project – a new air inlet system for airplane cabins, which improves the availability of fresh air in the cabin while reducing pathogen inhalation concentrations.
Two runner-ups each received the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of US$50,000. Nicole Ticea, 17, also of Canada, was awarded for developing an inexpensive, disposable, easy-to-use testing device to combat the high rate of undiagnosed HIV infections in low-income communities. Karan Jerath, 18, of Friendswood, Texas, got the award for refining and testing a novel device that should allow an undersea oil well to rapidly and safely recover following a blowout.
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| Kenneth, Angelo, Carmelle, Marian and Thea with their Shout-Out poster. |
Credits: Photos from ISEF Team Philippines 2015.