AUSTIN, Texas—Two young Texans will square off against contestants from as far away as Hawaii and Puerto Rico in a competition for $20,000 and $30,000 science and technology scholarships this weekend. One of six regional rounds of the Siemens Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition, the event is hosted by The University of Texas at Austin.
It will take place at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center on Friday (Nov. 19) and Saturday (Nov. 20). Five other regional contests are being held on campuses across the U.S.
The Siemens Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition is the scholarship and awards program developed by the Siemens Foundation to promote math and science education in America. The competition, in its inaugural year, is open to individuals and teams of high school students developing research projects in the physical sciences, the biological sciences and mathematics.
The scholarship prize for each regional individual winner totals $20,000. Each regional team winner divides $30,000. Winners of the regionals will compete in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 4-6 for a top individual scholarship prize of $100,000. The student teams are competing for shares of a $90,000 scholarship.
Finalists include two Texas students, Amanda Chambers, 17, a senior at Sandra Day O’Connor High School in San Antonio and Anshul Haldipur, 17, a senior at William P. Clements High School in Sugar Land. Other competitors are coming from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, California, Colorado and Tennessee.
The students will present their independent research projects to a panel of judges selected by UT Austin. They entered projects in the fields of chemistry, biology, physics and computer science. The competition recognizes student projects for originality, creativity, academic rigor and clarity of communication. In addition to hosting regional competitions, UT Austin and the other institutions may work with Siemens’ operating companies throughout the U.S. to coordinate research internships for the winners.
Siemens Corp., the foundation’s parent company, is involved in such U.S. industries as telecommunications, energy and power, lighting and precision materials, industry and automation, healthcare, microelectronics and components, transportation and information systems. In 1998, Siemens’ U.S. businesses had more than 66,000 employees and sales of more than $11.0 billion.
Siemens AG, based in Berlin and Munich, is one of the world’s largest electrical engineering and electronics companies and employs over 400,000 people in a total of 193 countries.
For more information, contact Thomas Varney at Siemens Corp. (212) 258-4335 or Esra Ozer Siemens Foundation (212) 258-4348, or visit the website at http://www.siemens-foundation.org.
