Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)

Intel ISEF 2009 logo

Intel ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college celebration of science. Held annually in May, the Intel ISEF brings together more than 1,500 students from 40 nations to compete for nearly $4 million in prizes and scholarships.

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Physical Society (APS) have been active participants in ISEF for many years, sponsoring prizes and providing judges.

Top award winners received a monetary award, as well as a one-year AAPT membership, a one-year APS student membership, a certificate from both AAPT and APS, as well as subscriptions to AAPT and APS journals. Each sponsoring teacher of a student who received an AAPT and APS award also received a certificate.

2014 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

Los Angeles, California, May 11-16, 2014 2014 ISEF special Award winners photo

First Place Award of $1,200

PH041 Spectral Smartphone: Rapid Prototyping Mobile Platform Diffraction Spectrophotometry
Allen Jiang, 16, duPont Manual High School, Louisville, Kentucky
Teacher: John Albright

Second Place Award of $800

PH013 Nova Delphini 2013: A Backyard Analysis of a Classical Nova
Piper Michelle Reid, 17, Dripping Springs High School, Dripping Springs, Texas
Teacher: Kim Reid

Third Place Award of $500

PH305 Holes Can Lift: A Continuing Study of the Separation Effects of Airfoil Slots
Sarah Nicole Hancock, 16, Clear Horizons Early College High School, Houston, Texas
Kate Rutherford, 17, Clear Horizons Early College High School, Houston, Texas
Teacher: Sheryl Dalpe

Certificate of Honorable Mention

PH007 Rocks of the Rainbow: Asteroid Classification Using SDSS Filters
Stephanie Hiromi Spear, 16, Henry J. Kaiser High School, Honolulu, Hawaii
Teacher: Keith Huntington

PH019 Novel Automated Next-Generation Multijunction Quantum Dot Solar Panel Designs Using Monte Carlo-Based Modeling
Valerie S. Ding, 17, Catlin Gabel School, Portland, Oregon
Teacher: Veronica Ledoux

PH053 Piezoforce Imaging of Confined Oxide Nanowires
Akash Levy, 17, Taylor Allderdice High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Teacher: Janet Waldeck

Top award winners receive a one-year AAPT and APS student membership, a certificate from both AAPT and APS, as well as one-year electronic subscriptions to AAPT's journals, "The Physics Teacher," "The American Journal of Physics," and other APS journals. Each sponsoring teacher of a student who receives an AAPT and APS award also will receive a certificate.

2013 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

Phoenix, AZ, May 12-17, 2013

2013 Judges:
Don Franklin, Mercer University, Hampton, GA
Dwain Desbian, Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, AZ
Trina Cannon, Highland Park High School, Dallas, TX

First Place Winner
PH306 The Visible Identification of the Electric Resonance: The Research about Visualization of Resonance using the Dual Coil
Dohyeon Kim, 17, Busan High School, Busan, South Korea
Myung Hwan Jang, 17, Busan High School, Busan, South Korea
Jeayoun Kim, 17, Busan High School, Busan, South Korea

Second Place Winner
PH059 Time-Resolved Optical Study of the Surface States of Topological Insulator Bi2Se3
Connor Everett Tom, 16, John W. North High School, Riverside, California

Third Place Winner
PH049 Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor (Gd Doped ZnO)
Ahmed Nabil Halawani, 17, Dar Althiker School, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Certificate of Honorable Mention
PH032 New Method to Measure Sphere Rolling Friction Coefficient
Hyeonsu Kim, 17, Chungnam Science High School, Gong-ju, South Korea
PH051 Discovery of New Variable Star in Cassiopeia
Ilkham Irekovich Galiullin, 17, Grammar School 139, Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan
PH055 Problem Solving with Chaos
Dominic Yurk, 16, Robert L. Paschal High School, Fort Worth, Texas

2012 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

2012 ISEF Special Organization Award Winners with judge, Don Franklin.  Photo courtesy ISEF.

Pittsburgh, PA, May 2012

2012 Judges:
Don Franklin, Mercer University, Hampton, GA
Shelly Hynes, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA
Greg Puskar, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

First Place Winner
PH018 A Generalized Holographic Model of Cosmic Accelerated Expansion
Henry Wanjune Lin, 16, Caddo Parish Magnet High School, Shreveport, Louisiana

Second Place Winner
PH055 A Novel Process for the Production of Medically Relevant Radioisotopes
Taylor Ramon Wilson, 17, Davidson Academy of Nevada, Reno, Nevada

Third Place Winner
PH036 Nano-Tesla Magnetic Field Sensors for an Early Warning System for Earthquakes
Ananya Mukundan, 17, International Academy East, Troy, Michigan

Certificate of Honorable Mention
PH011 New Ideas in Physics: The Mass Ratio of Elementary Particles from Torus Geometry
Viola Mocz, 16, Mililani High School, Mililani, Hawaii
PH042 N-Body Computational Simulations of Planetesimal Agglomeration in Early System Gas Giant Formation
Ian A Sohl, 17, DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts, Ogden, Utah
PH305 Multiplied Water Transport by Water-Jet
Koichi Shiga, 16, Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Kokutaiji Senior High School, Hiroshima, Japan
Kazushige Ueda, 16, Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Kokutaiji Senior High School, Hiroshima, Japan
Hiraku Doi, 16, Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Kokutaiji Senior High School, Hiroshima, Japan

2011 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

Los Angeles, CA, May 2011

2011 Judges:
Don Franklin, Mercer University, Hampton, GA
Jerry Loomer, Retired Physics Teacher, Rancho Dominguez, CA
Bob Rumer, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA
Richard Stephens, General Atomics, Inertial Fusion Technology, San Diego, California

First Place Winner

PH010 The Flow Feature around Insects and Bionic Wing Based on Wind Tunnel Test
Yimeng Shi, 18, The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, Beijing, Beijing, China

Second Place Winner

ET001 The Engineering of a Novel Magnetic Levitation Train Propulsion System through the Application of a Coil Current Gradient,
Christopher Joseph Davlantes, 18, Bishop Kenny High School, Jacksonville, Florida

Third Place Winner

PH045 Detection of Radioactive Isotopes in the Radon Decay Chain Using a Homemade Ion Chamber,
Lois Therese Gagnon, 16, Gagnon Family Homeschool, Goodrich, Michigan

Certificate of Honorable Mention

  • PH022 Determining "Hot Spots" through Correlations of CMEs and Solar Flares, Travis Le, 16, Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
  • PH039 The Close Binary Fraction: A Bayesian Analysis of SDSS M Dwarf Spectra, Benjamin Mathias Clark, 15, Penn Manor High School, Millersville, Pennsylvania
  • PH302 The Desk Model of a Multilayer Magnetic Nanoparticle, Lev Yurovskiy, 16, Lyceym #40, Nizhniy Novgorod, Nizhegorodskaya, Russia and Grigory Astretsov, 17, Lyceum # 40, Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhegorodskaya, Russia

 

2010 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

San Jose, California, May 2010

 

2010 Judges:
Dr. Roger R. McNeil,  California State University – Stanislaus, Turlock, CA
Dr. Terry L. Schalk, University of California - Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Dr. Alexander A. Grillo, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Dr. Thomas Himel, SLAC MS 66, Menlo Park, CA 94025

1st Place Winner

PH019
Katrina Hui
Richland, WA
Experimental Study of Viscosity Using Stokes' Law:  Examining and Correcting Stokes' Law's Limitations in Viscometry

2nd Place Winner

PH030
Daniela Flaz
Chicago, Il
Efficiency of Thermoelectric Power Conversion in Bi2Te3

3rd Place Winner

PH308
Lucas Andres Conci and Juan Jose Velasco
Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba, Argentina
Measurement of the Earth-Moon Distance by a Dynamic Method

Honorable Mention

  • PH306; Andrew Ross, Clinton, UT and Jed Grow, Clearfield, UT
  • PH036; Jonathan Sapolinski, Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia
  • PH027; Travis Crockett, Rio Rancho, NM
  • PH053; Nikita Michael Bogdanov, Albuquerque, NM

 2009 Special AAPT/APS Award Winners

Reno, Nevada
May 2009

1st Place WInner

PH022
Kaylin Jackson
Paeonian Springs, VA
Linear Momentum Transfer from Gravitational Waves

2nd Place Winner

PH037
Sayuri Sepulveda
Laval, Canada
CD Photo-spectroscopy: Construction of a Spectroscope Using a Compact Disk, a Digital Camera and Python Image Processing

3rd Place Winner

PH047
Travis Le
Aiea, HI
WASP 2-b or Not Just 2-b

Honorable Mention

  • PH048; Taylor Wilson; Reno, NV
  • PH036; Jennifer Butchart, Oil City, PA
  • PH025; Glen Meyerowitz; North Port, NY
  • PH015; Michadel Di Mascio; Waynesville, OH

Contact Information

For further information about the competition, or for rules and entry forms, please contact the Society for Science and the Public at:
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)

Lists of winners from previous years are also provided on the ISEF website.