WISE sponsors 49th Annual Southeast Michigan Science Fair

WISE sponsored the 49th Southeast Michigan Science Fair in early March. Nearly 500 middle and high school students participated. WISE Director Dr. Cinda-Sue Davis is also the Director of the Southeast Michigan Science Fair. “Our involvement in science fair is important for several reasons. One being that a NSF study found a strong predictor of whether or not a student pursues a career in science is the student’s participation in a middle school science fair. We make a special effort to get underrepresented students involved in the science fair, including girls, minority students and students from rural communities.” Davis is pleased to report that current participation of girls in the Southeast Michigan Science fair is about 50 percent for both middle and high school students.

Top high school winners this year include:

• Katherine Fang, Pioneer High School for her project, “Second Year Study: The Signaling Pathway That Controls Body Weight”
• Thomas (Ben) Thompson, Huron High School, for his project “Neural Network Topologies for Number Recognition”
• Adam Kidder and Nicholas Triantafillou, Saginaw Arts and Science Academy* for their team project, “Simulations of Pedestrian Traffic Flow: Using Real-World Data to Accurately Model Crowd Characteristics”
  (*While Saginaw is not normally in our region, because the Saginaw regional fair does not include team projects several Saginaw teams petitioned to be included in our fair)

Thanks for funding from our sponsors, these finalists will travel to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), this year May 13 – 19 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For a complete list of awardees, please visit the Southeast Michigan Science Fair web site at: http://www.wccnet.edu/events/sciencefair/

Washtenaw Community College is a co-sponsor of the event. Award and outreach activities are made possible though a generous grant from Pfizer and through generous donations from individuals and businesses including Air and Waste Management Association Science Fair Committee, Barrett Paving Materials, Burt Forest Products Company Inc., Don J. Cramer, Dr. Gilbert Omenn and Martha Darling, the Exchange Club of Ann Arbor, Geiger and Hamme, LLC, Howard Cooper, McNaughton and Gunn Incorporated, Michigan Chapter of Sigma Xi, Mr. and Mrs. Lee Danielson, Mr. and Mrs. James Lombard, NuStep, Inc., Peter A. Long, Attorney, SI Company, LLC, Schlanderers and Sons, St. Joseph Mercy Health Systems, Stantec, Toyota Technical Center, Viking Systems Inc. and Weber’s Inn.

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