Scientists singled out in different kind of talent search

Three local students named semifinalists in Intel’s prestigious

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Jan 14, 2010

Jaime Valdez / Times Newspapers

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The Intel-sponsored Prize Patrol caught three Beaverton students by surprise Wednesday morning.

Westview High School senior Franklin Zhao and Catlin Gabel School seniors Yale Fan and Kevin Ellis were named semifinalists in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search, America’s oldest, most highly regarded pre-college science competition.

Other state semifinalists include Joshua Steinberg from Oregon Episcopal School and Alexander McCarthy from Liberty High School in Hillsboro.

This year’s 1,735 entrants are from 37 states. Each of the 300 semifinalists receives $1,000 with an additional $1,000 going to their school.

“Intel is determined to encourage and showcase America’s brightest young scientists,” said Aubrey Clark, Intel’s education relations manager in Oregon. “Becoming an Intel STS semifinalist shows the world that a student has the potential to become one of tomorrow’s great scientists.”

From the 300 semifinalists, 40 finalists will be announced on Jan. 27. The finalists will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in March to attend the Science Talent Institute where they will compete for $405,000 in scholarships.

Their weeklong stay will include an in-depth judging process, visits to historic sites and cultural institutions, and meetings with leading scientists and engineers. Students will also have an opportunity to exchange ideas and insights with each other and prominent members of the scientific community.

Meet Franklin Zhao

Age: 17

Research Project: “Quantum encoding algorithm for error correction.”

Explanation: His project was developed to address the problem of decoherence in quantum computing. “Decoherence is one, big obstacle in making a quantum computer. They are really, really sensitive. Since they are affected by the environment, they have errors – they break. To help prevent this, you have to protect the quantum computer with encoding.”

Inspiration: “I was inspired to do this project by my ninth-grade project. I was working with PSU professor Marek Perkowski to learn how quantum computing works. He taught me about quantum physics, quantum logic and quantum computing – things I had never known before. He guided me, and the next year I came up with the idea for this project on my own.”

Thoughts on being named a semifinalist: “I’m actually fairly surprised because I had to think a lot about this project. I focused on writing a paper to communicate this complex idea so that it could be easily understood. I’m glad that it resonated with a couple people.”

Future plans: “I would like to go into electrical engineering and find some unique ways it can be used in say medicine.”

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