Seven students announced as Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists

Seven seniors were named semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS) competition on Wednesday. Semifinalists will continue their research in the hopes of being selected as a finalist later this month.

Elizabeth Duval, who teaches the Senior Research Project (SRP) class of the Magnet program, explained that STS is a research competition, designed for outstanding science students to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists. "Students are selected not just for their research, but also for their potential as futures researchers,” she said.

This year, STS selected 300 semifinalists from a total of 1,744 applicants, according to the STS website. Seven of those finalists came from Blair. Duval explained that a large number of her students apply to STS each year. "We usually have a good, strong representation,” she said. Duval recalled that only two schools had a higher number of semifinalists than Blair.

Magnet program students take a research course that begins at the start of their junior year, which is followed by a summer internship, during which students conduct their own research, Duval explained. Often times, students in the course choose to submit to STS because they already have the work complete, she added.

In March, finalists are invited to Washington, D.C., to participate in final judging, display their work and talk to notable scientists. The top participants compete for an award of $100,000.

Duval expressed how competitive STS is. "Even making it to the top 300 is huge,” she said. These seven Blair semifinalists will be placed into a pool from which 40 finalists will be selected by Jan. 26, Duval predicted. "I'm very hopeful that at least one [Blair student] will be selected,” Duval said.

Blair's Semifinalists:
Fang Cao
Andrew Das Sarma
Ajay Kannan
Nilay Kumar
Winston Liu
Sandra Yan
Raina Zheng