Newsbrief: Blair does not advance at Intel

Tonight, the Science Service announced the winners of the 61st Intel Science Talent Search, selected from a pool of 40 finalists. Three Blair students were finalists, but none finished in the top ten places.

Seniors Jenny Alyono, Jacob Burnim and Jean Li were selected as finalists in the competition, commonly referred to as the "Junior Nobel Prize." They will each recieve a $5000 scholarship and a new computer.

Ryan Patterson, of Central High School in Grand Junction, Colorado, won the grand prize for his project "The American Sign Language Translator," a glove that translates sign language into text on a portable display. He will recieve a $100,000 scholarship and a computer.

This year, 1592 students applied to the competition. Blair students comprised 17 of 300 semifinalists selected from this pool. Finalists were judged not only on the quality of their projects, but also on research ability, originality, creativity and ability to apply science to real-world situations.

Last year, then-Blair students Alan Dunn and Will Pastor won third and tenth places, respectively. In 1996, then-senior Jacob Lurie won the grand prize for his work with advanced logic and surreal numbers.