Google Science Fair 2011 Projects

Posted on May 10, 2011  Comments (5)

The Google Science Fair selected 60 semi-finalists in 3 groups (age 13-14, 15-16 and 17-18). The 60 global semi finalists will then be narrowed down by our judging panel to 15 global finalists who will be announced later in May.

The 15 global finalists will be flown to Google HQ in California, USA for our celebratory Science Fair event and finalist judging round will take place on 11 July 2011. These finalists will be expected to present their projects before a panel of acclaimed scientists including Nobel Laureates, tech visionaries and household names.

Sailboats using canting keels are among the world’s fastest ocean-going vessels; however, there are inherent problems. Canting sailboats require the addition of canards or dagger boards to replace the loss of the primary underwater lifting surface, adding significant complexity. The second and more important issue is that the cantilevered weight of the ballast bulb at the end of the keel generates tremendous loads on the vessel. The objective of this research was to test a concept to make sailboats even faster and safer than the current designs. To test the concept, this researcher built a remote control functional model fitted for both canting and hydrodynamic keels. The results showed that the hydrodynamic keel out performs the canting keel both upwind and downwind.

The Grand Prize winner plus one parent or guardian per winner will win an amazing 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions. Traveling aboard the National Geographic Endeavour the winner will visit Darwin’s living laboratory and experience up-close encounters with unique species such as flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, and domed giant tortoises. They also win a $50,000 scholarship, split equally between team members should a team win this prize. This scholarship is intended to be used towards the finalists’ further education.

The 2 age group winners that are not selected as the grand prize winner will win $25,000 scholarships.

You can vote on your favorite projects and help select the people’s choice winner that will receive a $10,000 scholarship.

Related: 11 Year Old Using Design of ExperimentsPresident Obama Speaks on Getting Students Excited About Science and EngineeringScience Fair Project on Bacterial Growth on Packaged Salads

5 Responses to “Google Science Fair 2011 Projects”

  1. Noel
    May 13th, 2011 @ 2:19 am

    This is really awesome. Any endeavor like this should get utmost support from the government. In recent times, we need cost-effective measures and products that could benefit both present and future generations. Science Fairs is certainly one way to boost and encourage creativity especially to young minds. It would be even more beneficial to incorporate recycling in coming up with new inventions. Kudos to the people involved.

  2. Anonymous
    June 7th, 2011 @ 3:02 pm

    Some of those projects are brilliant. It is things like this that school all too often forget to treat their students to. Stuff like this applies to hands-on people like me- i think the word is “kinesthetic”

  3. Bob S.
    June 16th, 2011 @ 11:45 am

    Very impressive. More so because the things the young come up with are of a thinking level that even impresses adults. I love the diversity in ideas as well.

    Good thing for the relatively high prizes. Not that everything should be about money but it is maybe that extra pull for the young ones to “go for it”.

    Good luck to all contestants!

  4. Great Projects From First Google Science Fair Finalists » Curious Cat Science Blog
    July 20th, 2011 @ 8:54 pm

    15 finalists (from 3 different age groups – 13-14 years old, 15-16 and 17-18) were selected to present their projects. 11 finalists were from the USA and 1 each from Singapore, Canada, India and South Africa…

  5. YouTube SpaceLab Experiment Competition » Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog
    November 24th, 2011 @ 6:02 am

    […] Google Science Fair 2011 Projects – Bacteria Communicate Using a Chemical Language (quorum sensing) – 11 Year Old Using […]

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