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Space navigation plan takes gold
in 2010 Intel Science Talent Search

By Lisa Grossman

WASHINGTON — Ten of the nation’s most innova-tive young scientists have received their version of Olympic Gold — tempo-rarily putting aside their homework to do so.

Erika DeBenedictis, 18, of Albuquerque won first place in the Intel Science Talent Search, a prestigious competi-tion for high school seniors, at a gala held March 16. DeBenedictis earned a $100,000 scholarship for designing an autonomous navigation system that could help spacecraft travel swiftly and efficiently along an “interplanetary superhighway,” using planets’ gravity.

Second place and a $75,000 scholarship went to David Liu, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., for software that automatically searches and organizes digital pictures. Beyond organizing personal photo albums, the system could be helpful in medical imag-ing, space exploration and detecting threats to oil pipelines, Liu suggests.

Akhil Mathew, 18, of Madison, N.J., took third place and a $50,000 scholar- ship for work combining algebraic geom-etry, representation theory and category theory in studies of mathematical con-structs called Deligne categories. His method could be applied to other prob-lems in mathematics, he says.

Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News , has adminis-tered the Science Talent Search since its beginning in 1942. The Intel Foundation sponsors the competition. Vying for more than $630,000 in scholarships and other awards, the 40 finalists in this year’s com- petition were selected from more than

Top winner Erika DeBenedictis wrote navigation software
for spacecraft traveling an interplanetary superhighway.

1,700 entrants and represented 36 high schools in 18 states. Past STS finalists have gone on to win many accolades, including seven Nobel Prizes.

“This year’s Intel STS finalists are fully
worthy successors to the impressive
alumni who have come before them,”
The gala ended a weeklong
visit to Washington, during
which students presented
their projects; met with
members of Congress and
with John Holdren, director of the White
House Office of Science and Technology
Policy; and still had time for fun: a tour of
the national monuments and bowling.