by Raju Doshi, Intel Education - Communications Manager

Last month Intel hosted Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world's largest pre-college science competition. The huge exhibition hall at the Reno Sparks convention center was filled with rows upon rows of amazing science projects, more than 1200 actually, submitted by 1563 students from 51 countries. An underground radio that can be used for cave and mine rescues; a versatile, cheaper and more efficient biosensor to detect contaminants in public water systems; a Styrofoam-decomposing bacteria to combat Styrofoam pollution -- these are just a few examples of the projects that were submitted this year. For the second year in a row, three women (Tara Adiseshan, Li Boynton and Olivia Schwob) took the top honors and received $50,000 each in college scholarships. You can learn more about their projects here.

The goal of the competition is to bring together millions of young scientists to share ideas, showcase cutting-edge science, and compete for scholarships. The competition also encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions through authentic research practices to solve the problems of tomorrow. In an effort to provide an opportunity for an even larger audience to learn about the spectacular research these young scientists are conducting, we piloted an online people's choice award for the first time this year. You can read about the participants' projects and winners of that contest at www.Inspiredbyeducation.com. The science competitions such as Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair are just one aspect of Intel's annual investment of more than $100 million to improve education and technology literacy around the world.