Three Blair students are semifinalists in Siemens competition

Three Blair seniors were announced as Maryland semifinalists in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Lu Chen, Debbie Cheng and Yuan (Chelsea) Zhang were selected to move onto the regional competition. Regional finalists will be announced on Oct. 31.

Students who become regional finalists will then compete Nov. 18 and 19 at the Middle States Regional Competition, held at Carnegie Mellon University. Finalists from that competition will advance to the National Finals, held in New York City from Dec. 1 to 5.

The Siemens Westinghouse competition judges student research projects from across the country, awarding scholarships to the top studies. Students submit a 20-page research paper in early October. The research and report are then judged on a variety of factors, including the field knowledge of the student, comprehensiveness of the report, interpretation of data and the scientific importance of the study.

The competition, which has been running since 1999, is sponsored by both the Siemens Foundation and the College Board. Katherine Zhang from the Class of 2005 was the only Blair semifinalist named last year. However, in 2004, Xinlei (Stanley) Wang was a Maryland semifinalist who advanced to become a regional semifinalist.