CSF - Connecticut Science Fair

UTC named eight top winners of the 55th annual Connecticut Science Fair on last week -- winners who were selected for originality, self-motivation and a passion for science, as well as the quality of their work on their projects.

UTC is the title sponsor of the event that featured 147 finalists from 533 project submissions from middle and high school students throughout the state. A team of UTC judges chose the eight award recipients, who each received $500 in UTC common stock, plus a plaque and pen.

In separate judging, four top winners from grades 9 though 12 were named by Connecticut Science Fair judges to receive all-expense-paid trips to represent the state in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Cleveland May 11-17.
Richard Hollowell of Otis, who coordinated UTC's awards and the fair's judging, says, "In addition to exhibiting excellence in the quality of work, I also look for students who show passion for science, who see the project in a broader context and how the efforts can impact a broader good. I also look for originality, and someone who did the work by self-motivated initiative."

Hollowell says, "As always, the Connecticut Science Fair restores confidence in the quality of our education system and that our children are among the best and brightest in the world."

The UTC winners are:

Katrice M. Bullock, a senior at Bridgeport's Harding High School, who studied "Hooke's Law and Behavior Traits of Falling Materials." She experimented with force applied to material and its resulting behavior.
"I found that after you reach a certain point, it's easier to continue changing the behavior of a material," Katrice said of her first-ever state science fair project. "This can be applied to every material, so it's important for engineering and construction; for example, in terms of finding how much force can be applied to steel beams."
Joseph J. Babcock, a North Haven High School senior, who studied the periodic spacing of Mars' gullies in terms of the fluid mechanics of icicle formation on that planet. His project, "Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Theory and Fractal Geometry as a Model for Periodic Spacing of Mars Gullies," focused on the possibility that water - and maybe even life - once existed on Mars. Joseph was a semifinalist in this year's national Intel Science Talent Search. This was his first year participating in the Connecticut Science Fair.
Igor M. Zelenberg, a Stamford High School senior, studied the accumulation of heavy metals and trophic levels in Long Island Sound's Great Meadows Marsh. In his project, "Trophic Level Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals in Long Island Sound's Great Meadow Marsh," Igor developed a numerical approximation relating the heavy amounts of metals that exist in higher trophic levels.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, a Brewster High School junior, who wrote three computer programs to find mathematical relationships between the spread of epidemics in a population and the connectivity characteristics of that population. Her project, "Predicting the Rate of Disease Propagation in Populations of Known Connectivity," achieved some first-ever results through an original approach to modeling epidemics.
"No one has ever quantified how much you have to restrict your contact to avoid getting a disease," Anna-Katrina said. "It was also the first to predict connectivity. If you can predict connectivity of an epidemic, then you can figure out ways to stop it." Anna-Katrina was also the fair's first-place winner in the physical science category.
Justin M. Harrison is a junior at Danbury High School, who studied the security of information shared on computer systems in his first-ever state science fair entry. His project, "Secure Information Distribution Using Cryptography and Peer-to-Peer Architecture," found ways to implement an additional layer of trust for computers on peer-to-peer networks.
Stephen H. Ingraham, a sophomore at Danbury's Science Horizons, won the UTC Award for his project called, "Superluminal Microwave Tunneling in Frustrated Total Internal Reflection." His research explored a quantum tunneling phenomenon where the speed of light is greatly exceeded in the transmission of electromagnetic radiation.
Allic V. Sivaramakrishnan, a Talcott Mountain Academy eighth-grader from Avon, who used a computer program to determine mathematical reasoning that inhibition can prevent symptoms of epilepsy by reducing the chaos that leads to seizures. He experimented with controlling chaos in the nervous system by removing inhibition to nerve cells and adding stimulation. Allic said his love for math inspired his project.
His project, "Chaos and its Control in Physical and Biological Systems," also took first place in the fair for eighth-grade projects.
Andrew M. Davenport and Brett C. Lehner, seventh-graders from Science Horizons in Danbury, used two large models to study oscillation of skyscrapers in their first state science fair project.
In their project, "Think Big," they used a mass damper (a weighted pendulum mounted inside the building) to test how wind affects building sway at various floors. Andrew and Brett found that a mass damper works well to counteract building sway. They said an average damper would have to be about 13,400 tons, mounted low in the building.

Other fair winners were:

Physical Science - First Place: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky of Brewster High School, for "Predicting the Rate of Disease Propagation in Populations of Known Connectivity."
Physical Science - Second Place: Alexander C. Mittal of Greenwich High School, for "A Novel General Approach for Determining Nucleic Acid Structure Via Atomic Force Microscopy."
Life Science - First Place: Joia Ramchandani of Greenwich High School, for "Mammalian Cell Production of Monoclonal Antibodies in Simulated Microgravity."
Life Science - Second Place: Emily F. Cersonsky of Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, for "The Role of HSP-27 in the Protection of Na, K-ATPase During Sublethal Ischemic Injury and Subsequent Recovery."