Southeast Michigan Science Fair directed again by WISE director Davis

WISE Director Cinda-Sue Davis again presided over the Southeast Michigan Science Fair, held March 8 and 9. As SEMSF Director, Dr. Davis was pleased to have over 80 high school projects and over 200 middle school projects in the fair this year. "Research has found that the experience of doing a hands-on science project is one of the most successful ways to get students interested in science. We hear this anecdotally from many students and faculty members who still remember their middle and high school science fair projects," says Davis.

Because the Southeast Michigan Science Fair is an Intel-affiliated fair, the top two individual winners and the top team winner are eligible to advance to the Intel International Fair, held this year in Atlanta, Georgia the second week in May.

Southeast Michigan Science Fair winners who will advance to the Intel Fair include:

• Katie Everett, "Chains of Infection: A Sexual-network-based model evaluating the impact of human papillomavirus vaccination on infection prevalence in a adolescent population"
• Ben Thompson, "So Many Data-So Few Labels: The Effects of Autoencoders on Unlabeled Data for Pattern Recognition"
• Norman Zeng and Maggie Zhang, "Effect of Chinese Herbs on the Metabolism of Cholesterol and Glucose"

"Many regional fairs don't include teams because it is so expensive to send all of the students to the Intel Fair. However, due to generous donors, we are able to send our well-deserving team finalists," says Davis. However, Davis is concerned about funding for next year's science fair since Pfizer, a substantial donor, is no longer operating in Ann Arbor.

April 2008 eNews

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