08 September 2010

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Intel ISEF 2010 - 8-15 May 2010

Young Engineer for Britain winners Simon Brookes of Balcarras School, Gloucestershire and James Popper Marlborough College, Wiltshire were selected to represent the UK at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in San Jose. They are accompanied by Ahmed Kotb a chemical engineer from Young Engineers

James Popper (18) - Project: CookerSmart - James' project detects specfic infa red radiation from flames. The signal is processed to detect the fame flicker to minimise false alarms due to other sources of infa red before triggering the alarm.

Simon Brookess (18)  - Project: Fuel for Thought - Simon’s project helps stop fuel being drained from the tanks of parked lorries. This is becoming more of an issue due to the rising cost of diesel. The solution is an insulated ‘double-skin’ which encases the existing fuel tank. Any attempt to pierce the tank will result in an alarm being activated.

Simon and James

Simon and James's Diary

Day 1 - 8th May 2010

We left for ISEF from Heathrow's Terminal 5, where James encountered some issues at Heathrow Airport security, due to him taking lots of electronics and batteries in his hand luggage. We finally arrived in sunny San Francisco late in the afternoon after an 11 hour marathon flight, having eaten four times and watched some inflight movies!

We landed still hungry and quickly left to find out if the large boxes that we took had arrived intact. A few nervous moments later we were reunited with our luggage. .......... and were promptly searched yet again due to a rogue pear found in someone’s bag (Ahmed).

This delayed us for our connecting shuttle bus to San Jose but we found out upon arrival that we had fared better than the other UK contingent, who had a three hour delay due to volcanic activity in the northern hemisphere and would not be in San Jose until midnight!

Upon arriving at The Fairmont in San Jose, extremely jet-lagged and square-eyed, we had a quick break, shower and change of clothes and of course................headed to the nearest diner.

After that it was time to get some well needed shut eye and worry about the violation that Simon appears to have already gained!

Day 2 - 9th May 2010

After a well deserved sleep, we met up for breakfast with the rest of the UK contingent from the British Science Association (Hannah, Tom and Sam). We hurried to the San Jose Convention Centre to register and set up our stands. Simon nervously waited with his meeting with the Scientific Review Committee to check his violation. Luckily, the only problem was that he had put the wrong date on the paperwork. With that sorted out, we all started setting up our stands. Whilst doing this, James then found that his electronic circuit was now not working, after travelling across the Atlantic. After some frantic testing and re-soldering, he finally got the device working, much to his relief!

Next, we headed off for a slightly less stressful afternoon, designing our UK ‘Shout Out’ flag. After creating a masterpiece, we decided to add a bit of English Humour! Even though some of the additions could be attributed to our jetlagged creativity, many unfortunately could be not. These ‘additions’ included A slightly odd Welsh flag, a pot of coal at the end of the rainbow, a BP oil rig on fire, and a pink Big Ben! The highlight of the afternoon was our recorded ‘Shout out’ message. After many takes, Tom decided that it was a ‘Thumbs up’! We wearily trundled back to the hotel to prepare for the pin exchange.

After realising that every other country in the world takes their pins extremely seriously, we arrived with our badges. All the other countries seemed to love our accents (especially the Americans!) and we were mobbed for pins and photos. After exchanging all our badges, we retired to bed.

Day 3 - 10th May 2010

After breakfast at a diner, we went to check for any new stand violations that we could have picked up. Having found that all of us were in the clear we left James with an adult supervisor at the hotel and swiftly got the Caltrain to San Francisco.

Having endured a long hour and a half train journey we caught the muni train to the middle of the city. We then got on the cable car to go up the hill to Lombard Street, by this time the standard English weather had followed us and it was tipping it town. We ran down the winding road with a river of water following us. After deciding that the best choice was to find somewhere for lunch, soaked through we found a seafood restaurant in Fishermans Wharf. Feeling slightly less wet we set off to Pier 39 to see the seals and to get onto a boat that would take us to the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz, the rain had now cleared and the sun had come out making the boat trip a very good experience.

Whilst the rest of the group was in San Francisco, James was visiting Stanford University with the CEO of a major electronics company, as well as a number of small start up companies who are currently in ‘Stealth Mode’ in ‘the Valley’. However, the main reason for staying in San Jose was that he had been chosen to have a meeting on his stand with the CEO of Intel. After some very positive comments, he rejoined the rest of the group.

That evening saw us at the opening ceremony. After a rapturous applause for the UK at the shout out, the United Kingdom Finalists ran onto the stage with our amazing poster. We then sat back down to endure the discussions of the Intel ‘Rockstars. 

Day 4 - 11th May 2010

Today was the first day that we had a lie in; we woke up at 7am instead of 6am. We had breakfast at Peggy Sues’ diner again, this time James managed to eat 2 of the 3 massive pancakes (the aim of the week is that someone will eat the whole lot before we return to England). We then went to the Convention Centre for the so called press day. However there were in fact very few press and thus had to endure 2 hours of boredom, as hardly any of the competitors decided to turn up either.

Once this had finished, we hurried to the Google complex in Mountain View to have a look around. After experiencing the delights of the employee care program, including the volleyball courts, swimming pools, gyms and free food courts, we had a play on Google Earth and visited the programming offices. We then returned home to lounge by the pool.

In the evening, we went to the Parkside and Technology Museum, where we got to meet other ISEF finalists and observe the science and engineering exhibits. Food was provided, but after an hour of exchanging delightful pleasantries, we decided to have an early night, in preparation for tomorrow’s judging.

Day 5 - 12th May 2010

Waking early at 5.30am with a full day of judging to come, we promptly dressed and headed to the convention centre for final checks on our display stands. With final checks complete and minor alterations done, we met up with the rest of the UK contingent and headed for breakfast at our favourite diner – Peggys!

The judging took on the format of three main judging sessions split over the course of three sessions from 8.30am until 6.00pm. We each had eight scheduled judging sessions with experts in our field there to grill us. Each judge had 15minutes with us, and we were also told to expect special judges turning up throughout the day.  This meant that there would be plenty of spare time in-between sessions to catch up on some revision. 

Judges were from a variety of backgrounds, including the IEEE, US Navy, Army, and Air Force, United Technologies, GE Energy, Patent Association and Prevailing Technologies to name a few.

Following the judging, we promptly returned to our hotel to change and head straight out for the student mixer where we got to meet other fellow ISEF Finalists.

We headed to bed early as we were so exhausted from today and eagerly looked forward to meeting the public the next day and the first Awards Ceremony.

IEEE Foundation – The Presidents' Honoury Scholarship Award -$10,000 scholarship payable over four years for undergraduate study in engineering or related field.

Patent and Trademark Office Society - First Award $200

SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering - Second Award $1,500

The United Technologies Corporation - $2000 worth of stock (shares)



What a result!  Ecstatic and full of energy, we prompty headed out for dinner at Original Joe's and treated ourselves to some 32oz steaks!  This time, prepared for the large portion sizes, we shared our meal and had an awesome time that evening.  Completely stuffed, we headed back to the hotel and still couldn't sleep! 

It was a sad day to know that this would be our last night in San Jose, but we held high hopes for the next awards ceremony.

Day 7 - 14th May 2010

We woke to an early morning wake-up call from Ahmed, and quickly packed our bags, showered, and put our suits back on and headed down for breakfast.  Full of nerves, but excited at the same time, we grabbed a quick breakfast and checked our luggage into the lobby.

We knew we would have to rush back quickly to take down our display to make the shuttle bus to the airport, and promptly headed to the main arena, for the main awards ceremony.

We found some great seats and waited to see if we would be called out ...

And we were!

These are the results as they were called out:

Intel ISEF Grand Awards:

Simon Brookes - 4th place $500 cash award (Energy and Transportation)

James Popper - 1st place $3,000 cash award (Electrical and Mechanical Engineering)

Intel Best of Category Awards:

James Popper - $5,000 scholarship, a $1,000 grant for the school and the Intel Affiliated fair they represent (Electrical and Mechanical Engineering)

Seaborg SIYSS Award:

James Popper - A trip to the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar including attendance to the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden in December.

    

With awards in hand, we swiftly got congratulated by other ISEF Finalists and were interviewed by members of the press.  We felt like the Intel Rock Stars we met in the hotel one evening.

Before we set off back to our hotel and on to the convention centre, there was just enough time for one last photo of Team GB.



With mixed emotions, we set off back to take down our displays and exchanged contact details with our new friends we had made over the week.  We caught the shuttle bus to San Francisco International and exchanged stories with fellow passengers.  We had time for one last meal together at the airport before checking in and boarding our plane.  Once onboard, we did not stay awake for long, and slept for several hours. It was sad to depart, but we will be left with memories that will last for a lifetime. What an absolutely amazing trip!

We would like to end by thanking Young Engineers for taking us and a special mention must go to Ahmed Kotb, our accompanying adult, for looking after us and making sure we had a great time and lots of fun.

We truly did!