Michigan Students are International Science Fair Finalists.

Science, Lifestyle & General News Editors

ISEF 2000

DETROIT--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2000

Forty-one Michigan students are among 1,223 finalists from the United States and 42 other countries competing for scholastic honors and prizes at the 51st Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) being held at Cobo Center.

Science fair exhibits will be open to the public from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, May 11-12, in Oakland Hall at Cobo Center. Judging took place on Wednesday.

The Michigan students are competing for nearly $2 million in scholarships, grants and awards in categories ranging from botany and biology to computer and environmental sciences.

Approximately 1,100 judges participated in the competition, including engineers, doctors, chemists and other scientists with doctoral degrees or at least six years of experience in their fields.

There are three award ceremonies scheduled in Cobo Arena. A Special Awards and College Scholarship Ceremony takes place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 11. A Government Awards Ceremony will be held at 8 a.m. on , May 12, and the final, Grand Award Ceremony follows at 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

Michigan students participating in the international competition along with their project titles include:

Shanterra Anderson, 14, of Detroit, is a freshman at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. Her botany project, "The Effect of Electromagnetic Fields on Algae Cells" studies how electricity affects water algae.

Seema A. Azher, 14, of Flint, is a freshman at Carman-Ainsworth High School. Her medicine and health project, "Hot Pepper! Possible Therapy for Peptic Ulcer Disease?" explores the possibilities that hot peppers kill germs in your stomach that cause sores.

Linsey M. Brown, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Cass Technical High School. Her environmental science project, "Surfactant Solubilization of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons," tests a soap used to clean the environment's soil.

Steffen Caston, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Murray Wright High School. His physics project is titled, "High Energy Particle Effects in a Plasma Media."

Seetharam C. Chadalavada, 18, and Melinda M. Sloma, 17, both of Battle Creek, are seniors at Battle Creek Area Math & Science Center. Their medicine and health project, "Skeletal Muscle Cells -- Competent Model Systems for Neurotrophic Research: Two Year Study," deals with the chemical GDNF and understanding the physiology of it in skeletal muscle cells.

Joseph Corsetti, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Benjamin Davis Aerospace High School. His environmental science project, "Organic Energy Cleaning Up the Air" turns garbage into clean-burning fuel.

Christopher Cunningham, 15, of Bay City, is a sophomore at Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. His computer science project, "Evolving a Faster Commute" uses his software program to improve traffic grids and help traffic run smoothly based on simple methods of nature.

Lauren Drouillard, 16, of Dearborn, is a sophomore at Divine Child High School. Her engineering project, "Electronic Sound Analysis" uses a software program to examine sounds and determine the sounds people dislike.

Kaury Eisenman, 17, of Kalamazoo, is a senior at Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. Her physics project, "Evolution of the Giant Dipole Resonance Width With Nuclear Temperature in 120 Sn," explores nuclei jiggle and why everything in our world jiggles like Jello, even fingernails and eyelashes.

Todd Faner, 18, of Harper Woods, is a senior at Grosse Pointe North High School. His earth and space sciences project, "Identifying Unknown Solar Absorption Lines" identifies new solar elements.

Stacy Finkbeiner, 17, of Saginaw, is a senior at Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. Her microbiology project, "Time Course Study of Mycoplasmal Persistence in Harlan Sprague Dawley Rats" examines the effect of antibiotics on mycoplasmas.

Crystal Edwards, 15, of Big Rapids, is a sophomore; Megann Harbaugh, 17, of Euart, is a junior; and Polly Fraser, 18, of Big Rapids, is a senior, all at Mecosta Osceola Math, Science and Technology Center. Their environmental science project is "Investigation of the Niche Separation of Species of Rabbitfish at Lizard Island."

Megan, Goins, 14, of Detroit, is a freshman at Renaissance High School. Her behavioral and social sciences project, "The Bear Facts" looks at the attraction to teddy bears with child-like features compared to those with realistic features.

Bonnie Gray, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Henry Ford High School. Her medicine and health project, "An Investigation into the Function of Lymphocyte Uropod" researches how cells fight off disease.

George Hwang, 15, of Flint, is a sophomore at Carman Ainsworth High School. His environmental science project "Can Acoustical Methods Be Used To Detect and Characterize Corrosion?" questions ways to detect and characterize all levels of corrosion using acoustical methods.

Aditya Khargonekar, 15, of Ann Arbor, is a sophomore at Huron High School. His mathematics project, "Order and Chaos in a Dripping Water Facet" examines a dripping water facet and explores the pattern in which the drops fall.

Aaron Kilgore, 19, of Detroit, is a senior at Redford High School. His chemistry project, "Control of Muscle Cell Growth by Polysaccharides" looks at the use of artificial blood vessels during surgery.

Nathan Lord, 16, of Saginaw, is a sophomore at Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy. His biology project, "The Expression of Arabidopsis HAT GCN5 in Yeast" attempts to use a chemical from plants that controls what chemicals are made by the plant in yeast.

Keith Lukasik, 16, of Plymouth, is a sophomore at Detroit Catholic Central. His botany project, "CO2's Effect on Philodendron Root Growth," was a project to see if CO2 affected plant growth rates.

Tiffany Markyvech, 15, of Allen Park, is a sophomore at Divine Child High School. Her microbiology project, "The Effect of a Disinfectant on Bacteria over Time in a Day Care Center," tested germ reduction through the use of disinfectant in a day care center.

Kenneth Matthew, 15, of Detroit, is a junior at Western International High School. His biology project is entitled, "Effect of pH on DNA Migration During Electrophoresis."

Geneice McCloud, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Martin Luther King High School. Her zoology project is entitled "Post-Exercise Reduction in Baroreflex Function in Hypertensive Rats."

Shelly McKinney, 14, of Detroit, is a freshman at Crockett Technical High School. Her earth and space sciences project is entitled "Which Soil Holds the Most Water."

Rishi Mukhopadhyay, 16, of Bloomfield Hills, is a junior at Detroit Country Day School. His computer science project, "Context-Based Entropy Reduction Algorithms for Text Data Compression," reduces the amount of hard-drive space needed to store text allowing it to be sent over the Internet.

Sandhya Murti, 15, of Detroit, is a junior at Communication and Media Aris High School. Her mathematics project is entitled, "The Equation of the Golden Spiral."

Wyatt Myr, 17, of Port Huron, is a sophomore at Port Huron High School. His environmental science project, "A Design and Engineering Study Focusing on the Use of Innovative Techniques and Applications to Enhance Traditional Motor Vehicle Safety Features," improves the clearness of a car's windshield to increase safety.

Sara Marie Raser Palmer, 18, of Somerset Center, is a senior at Addison High School. Her environmental science project, "Effects of Leaf Type, Site Selection and Leaf Pack Removal Time on Stream Invertebrates," uses insects from a stream to determine water quality. She used different types of leave to determine the effects.

Diana Phillinganes, 15, of Detroit, is a freshman at Frank Cody High School. Her earth and space sciences project is entitled "Soggy Soils."

Pavi Elle Poole, 15, of Detroit, is a sophomore at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. Her zoology project, "Tracing Juvenile Hormones through Ligation in Phormia," examines life changes and their effect on growth.

Dominik Rabiej, 16, of Mattawan, is a junior at Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. His computer science project, "The Role of Spectral Peaks and Spectral Shape in Speech Recognition," tries to figure out how the brain and ear work together to understand the noises that come out of our mouths.

Brandon Schmandt, 16, of W. Bloomfield, is a sophomore at Detroit Catholic Central. His medicine and health project, "Tooth Decay Caused by Common Beverages," is designed to inform people which drinks cause tooth decay.

Elizabeth Schreiner, 16, of Marine City, is a sophomore at Marine City High School. Her environmental science project, "A Metal Analysis of the St. Clair River Using the Tissue of Dreissena Polymorpha as a Bioindicator for Cr, Pb, and Hg," enables us to realize how and where our water is polluted.

Siddharth Shenai, 18, of Bloomfield Hills, is a senior at Detroit Country Day School. His engineering project, "Sensitivity Nulling of Inertial Guidance Systems," allows accurate and precise rocket flight path projections.

Laura Smith, 15, of Detroit, is a freshman at Renaissance High School. Her behavioral and social sciences project is "The Mold We're Pressed to Fit."

Kavon Stewart, 18, of Detroit, is a senior at Redford High School. His chemistry project is entitled, "Synthesis and Evaluation of Terminally Alkylated Polymines as Potential Anti-Trypanosomal Agents."

Robert C. Vogt IV, 15, of Ann Arbor, is a senior at Huron High School. His computer science project, "Microstructure of the Discrete Fourier Transform: Phase II," uses his technique, XDFT, to significantly improve medical images, allowing doctors to diagnose diseases and illness earlier. In his spare time, Vogt is a staff member of his school newspaper, a computer assistant at school, and participates in community service projects, including creating Web sites for community organizations.

Sameer Walavalkar, 17, of Beverly Hills, is a sophomore at Detroit Country Day School. His physics project, "A Crystal Growth Variation of the Bak-Sneppen Evolution Model," uses basic chaos theory to model things from crystal growth to evolution.

Cordelia Ziraldo, 17, of Detroit, is a senior at Cass Tech High School. Her microbiology project, "Characterization of PfEFG-8 as a Vaccine Candidate Against the Human Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum," looks at possible cures for malaria.