Creating a world class science project is no easy task, but this year thousands of 13-18 year olds from more than 120 countries submitted their project to the third annual Google Science Fair. After further judging and deliberation, today we’re announcing the 15 finalists from our top 90 regional finalists, and the winner of the Scientific American Science in Action Award. From the creation of an exoskeletal glove to support the human hand to managing the impact of infrastructure projects on endangered species to an earlywarning system for emergency vehicles, the calibre, inventiveness and diversity of this year’s projects is a testament to the fact that young minds really can produce world changing ideas. The following 15 finalists will join us at Google Headquarters in Mountain View on September 23 to present their projects to an international panel of esteemed scientists for the final round of judging. The Grand Prize winner will receive a 10day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions and $50,000 in scholarship. CONGRATULATIONS: Age 13-14 Alex Spiride (USA): SquidJet: BioInspired Propulsion System for Underwater Vehicles Venkat Sankar (USA): Ecology or Economy: Managing the Impact of Infrastructure Projects on Endangered Species Kavita Selva (USA): Superconductor Tapes: A Solution to the Rare Earth Shortage Crisis Liza Sosnova and Tina Kabir (Russia): Lyytinen Universal hydrostatic densitometer Viney Kumar (Australia): The PART (Police and Ambulances Regulating Traffic) Program
Age 15-16 Elif Bilgin (Turkey): Going Bananas! Using Banana Peels in the Production of BioPlastic As A Replacement of the Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic Ann Makosinski (Canada): The Hollow Flashlight Yi Xi Kang, Kwok Ling Yi and Tricia Lim (Singapore): Efficacy of Estrogens and Progesterone in Hepatic Fibrosuppression Valerie Ding (USA): Rapid Quantum Dot Solar Cell Optimization: Integrating Quantum Mechanical Modeling and Novel Solar Absorption Algorithm Shrishti Asthana (India): Solar Light Assisted nanoZnO Photo Catalytic Mineralization The Green Technique for the Degradation of Detergents Age 17-18 Charalampos Ioannou (Greece): An Exoskeleton Glove which Enhances and Supports the Movement of the Human Palm Esha Maiti (USA): Stochastic Monte Carlo Simulations to Determine Cancer Metastasis Rates from Patient Survival Data Elizabeth Zhao (USA): A Novel Implementation of Image Processing and Machine Learning for Early Diagnosis of Melanoma Eric Chen (USA): Computeraided Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Combat Flu Pandemic Vinay Iyengar (USA): Efficient Characteristic 3 Galois Field Operations for Elliptic Curve Cryptographic Applications We’re equally excited to announce the winner of the Scientific American Science in Action Award, which honors a project that makes a practical difference by addressing an environmental, health or resources challenge. An independent panel have awarded this to Elif Bilgin from Turkey for her work using banana peels to produce bioplastics. Congratulations to Elif who is awarded $50,000 and a year’s mentorship to help develop her project. Elif’s project is also one of the 15 finalists for the Google Science Fair and she is still in the running for the Grand Prize Award. Which of the 15 finalist projects do you think has the potential to change the world? It will be your turn to nominate a winner for the Inspired Idea Award on the Google Science Fair website from August 1-30. Check back to our website for more details. Tune in live to see the finalist gala on September 23, which will be broadcast on our website, Google+ page and YT channel. Congratulations to all our finalists, we look forward to meeting in Mountain View! 
