Bwah-ha-ha-ha. I’m Just a Mad Science Judge!

Today I did the annual ritual of spending a vacation day to volunteer as a judge at the California State Science Fair. As I always say, this is a tiring but rewarding experience, exhilerating to see the quality and talent of our kids these days. If you are free to be in SoCal in late May, please volunteer. We need you.

Today, I was the panel chair for the Junior Math and Software panel. We had 26 projects and 11 judges. Let me talk about some of the projects in my panel that piqued my interest or were otherwise noteworthy:

• Project J1302 looked at sending signals in artificial neural networks using temporal signals. It received an honorable mention; I had some problems with the utility of the timing signals and though an error correcting code would be appropriate.
• Project J1308 from a 6^th grader was an example of presentation problems. This was a super sharp kid who taught himself calculus in 6^th grade, but the concepts in his project were so advanced he couldn’t successfully convey them to the judges.
• Project J1309 looked at modeling the behavior of the 1918 influenza epidemic using SIR models. This 8^th grader knew her stuff, was able to convey it, and rolled with the punches when we suggested changing variables. This was the 1st place panel winner.
• Project J1310 was an 8^th grader who came up with a solution to Rubiks Cube (not knowing group theory), and then implemented a program to solve it in Mathmatica. 2^nd place.
• Project J1312 was an 8^th grader from Davis who attempted to correlate their car’s odometer with GPS by adding vectors.
• Project J1314 was a 7^th grader who reprogrammed his Roomba and used it to race his brother in a maze. Honorable mention.
• Project J1317 was a 7^th grader who attempted to evaluate operating systems, feeling Linux was better than MacOS or Vista. Although his conclusion may be right (depending on task), he really didn’t understand the operating systems well.
• Project 1318 was an 8^th grader from Fresno who attempted to mathematically determine based on the offer whether the banker in Deal or No Deal has knowledge of what is in the case. Think of it as an advanced Monty Hall problem. Honorable mention.
• Project 1321 was an 8^th grader who developed an algorithm to prune network graphs in order to save memory. He was sort of weak on what the graphs were used for. 3^rd place.
• Project 1323 was a 6^th grader who investigated spirolaterals to determine what factors made them close. Honorable mention.
• Project J1324 was an 8^th grader who looked at the Monterey Pennisula road network, from Carmel to Seaside, to determine what the critical paths were and whether there were single points of failure, critical information for infrastructure planning. Yes, I had fun with this. 4^th place.

As usual, our category had a lot of projects from San Diego and Fresno. There were at least two projects from the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, one from Flintridge Prep in La Canada Flintridge (which had some other students in as well), and a mix of other areas.

After the panel judging, I got to do project of the year. In this, we looked at all the projects that won in each category. Here’s a summary of what I remember; some were quite amazing:

• Junior Aerodynamics/ Hydrodynamics: J0125 was done by two 7^th graders who constructed boats moved by magnetohydrodynamic engines.
• Junior Applied Mechanics & Structures: J0207 was an 8^th grader who constructed a lego robot that was able to track the sun to give optimal input to solar cells.
• Junior Behavioral & Social Sciences: J0316 was a 6th grader who was fed up with speeders on her street. She borrowed a speed gun from the police, measured the speed of traffic, and then set out a bicycle lying on its side on the sidewalk to see how traffic was affected.
• Junior Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology: J0405 was an 8^th grader who looked at what type of fermentation occurs in the making of idli, and the effect of fenugreek on said fermentation.
• Junior Chemistry: J0516 was a 6^th grader who looked at conductivity in contaminated water, basing in on the concept of moleity.
• Junior Cognitive Science: J0601 was an 8^th grader who explored subliminal messaging, constructing her own videos with subliminal messages to see if they could be detected.
• Junior Earth & Planetary Sciences: J0710 was a 6^th grader who explored strengths of different levee construction in New Orleans.
• Junior Electronics & Electromagnetics: J0806 was a 7^th grader developed their own nanocrystal solar cells sensitized with plant dyes. Project of the year.
• Junior Environmental Engineering: J0904 was a 6^th grader who looked at how different plants absorbed zinc to aid in decontamination.
• Junior Environmental Science: J1003 was a 7^th grader in San Diego who was concerned about the pond behind her library, and investigated what polluted it, the effects on wildlife, and started lobbying the county to clean it up.
• Junior Mammalian Biology: J1122 was a 7^th grader who investigated the effects of breathing on swimmer speed.
• Junior Materials Science: J1222 was an 8^th grader who looked at compression of a fluid, building his own measuring device.
• Junior Math and Software: As mentioned above, this was a model of an influenza epidemic.
• Junior Microbiology: J1407 was an 8^th grader who explored the effect of circadian rhythms on phosphorescent sea animals.
• Junior Pharmacology/ Toxicology: J1534 was a 7^th grader who investigated what spices, when mixed with non-toxic paint, inhibit algae. Garlic won.
• Junior Physics & Astronomy: J1629 was an 8^th grader who looked at galaxy clustering.
• Junior Plant Biology: J1727 was an 8^th grader who looked at the effects of organic fertilizer on corn, going so far as to start a database for farmers.
• Junior Product Science (Biological): J1803 was a 7^th grader who built a home endotoxin detection kit, and started the patent process.
• Junior Product Science (Physical): J1933 was a 7^th grader who looked at the effects of florescent lights on the dyes used in CD-Rs. Hint: Don’t buy them at Comp USA.
• Junior Zoology: J2017 was an 8^th grader who explored how pigeons spaced themselves on wires and poles.

From doing this effort, what advice would I give would be submitters? Know your stuff. Build it yourself, including your measuring equipment. Explore something that is meaningful to you and that you are excited about. Present the information cleanly, and be able to communicate — both on your board and verbally — what you did. Don’t be afraid to try.

Lastly, the fair was in a new location this year: the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. This venue, which has lost its two major tenants (USC and the LA Clippers — I can’t bring myself to call them collegate or professional teams :-)), seemed sad. It also seemed quite small. It’s also old — built in 1959 — and fighting for its survival against the Staples Center and other venues. At least it is unlikely to suffer the same fate as the LA Forum.

All in all, a very fun day.