Greenville County & SC Regional Science & Engineering Fair
2008 Activity Report
The 2008 Greenville County & SC Regional Science & Engineering Fair was held March 11, 2008 at the Carolina First Center in Greenville, SC.
Twenty-three schools participated in this year's fair - 17 in the junior division and 6 in the senior division. In the junior division, 149 students presented 144 total projects. In the senior division, 47 students presented 43 projects.
Ninety-two individuals from local schools, universities, businesses and professional organizations acted as judges.
The overall winner of the senior fair was Xiya Zhu from Southside High School for her project "Methods to Improve Solar Cell Efficiency with Experimental Demonstration, Mathematical Modeling and Application." She exhibited her project at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair in Atlanta, GA where she received a special award of a prize package including $2000 in common stock from United Technologies. Xiya also received the Charles Townes Award for Excellence in Student Research by a High School Student.
The second place senior winner was the team of Anna Johnson & Kaushal Vadhar from Southside High School for their project "Testing Concentrations of Lactic Acid in NaOH Solution." Anna and Kaushal also exhibited their project at the Intel ISEF.
Helen Leung of Southside High School attended Intel ISEF as an observer. Helen's project "Simulating the Ideal Gas Law Using Basic Newtonian Mechanics" was the third place winner.
The overall winner of the junior fair was Cameron Abarotin of Mitchell Road Christian Academy for his project "To See or Not to See." Cameron is also the recipient of the first annual Director's Award recognizing excellence in research by a middle school student. The Director's Award was given in honor of former fair directors Dr. Southern and Dr. Fairbanks by Dr. Dale Buchanan, a former winner of the Greenville County Science Fair.
The Greenville County and SC Regional Science and Engineering Fair also thanks Dr. Sam Parimi for his generous donation towards this year's fair.