Winners will be posted on the Society for Science and the Public website immediately following the ceremony.
You can comb through and pick who you think will rank among the winners. Check many of the student stories and science projects we’ve been sharing through photos, video, audio and mini-notes on Twitter this week.
For starters, here is a collection of videos you can see together in the custom player created by my Intel Pressroom Web wonderboy Patrick Darling.
All you proud moms, dads, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, teachers and friends of science, you can even grab the code for this player and embed it in your blog.
If you have trouble viewing these videos, your browser is not set to support iframes.Want more? Check out some great video blogs from GeekDad, who was sponsored by the Intel ISEF08 team. And the blog at Scientific America has some great ISEF stories, including a wrap up of Physics projects.
Take a look and let us know what projects inspire you.
Congratulations to all of the 1,500 students from over 50 countries to joined together, made friends and competed hard.
Comments (0) >]]>The content was important and I read it with interest, but what really caught my attention was this little graphic and tagline at the bottom:
It’s a remarkable thing. I personally hardly ever print out emails, but I know quite a few people who do. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand people and a real impact to the environment begins to show up.
I have a friend who doesn’t vote. Even in this year’s exciting campaign, she refuses to cast a ballot because she feels it doesn’t make any difference. I can see her point to some degree when I think of the people who were disappointed with how the election went last time around, especially in Florida. But, being the optimist that I am, I still think a single person, as well as a seemingly simple statement innocuously appended to an email, can make a big difference.
I sent an email to my boss’ boss to give her props for role modeling the Think Global, Act Local mantra. Her reply: She had nothing to do with it, she said, it was her admin’s idea. Well kudos to her too.
Since I’ve attached it to my emails, I’ve seen the little green thing popping up in replies I get nowadays. I think the thing’s gone viral.
Feel free to join in by using this little item as a tagline in your emails. It’s a very easy way to express your commitment to going green…..
Comments (2) >]]>I hate my phone.
It used to be a sort of non-confrontational thing. I knew my phone was stupid, and I would forgive it, ‘cause it was only a dumb phone. But if we just made phone calls together, everything was lovely. Let’s say my expectations were low in the early stages of our relationship. And then there were smarter and smarter phones; keyboards, push mail, and touch screens (oh my!). Then I thought that my phone could be everything that I wanted her to be. The one device for everything I need while away from my laptop.
My 1st manager at Intel consistently wore 2 phones, a pager, blackberry (back when it was only a smart pager), mp3 player, and a belt around his waist. He always commented on how it made him feel like Batman to have a utility belt. I vowed that would never happen to me, ever. And the dream of the one device was born.
Ever feel like throwing your phone in the microwave? I do. Connect to Google in there, loser!
My newest phone does it all. GPS, WiFi, full QWERTY, Bluetooth, toothpaste dispenser, video, music; and it sucks at all of them. It does web, but not the pages I want to go to. It’s got GPS navigation, but sometimes it tells me I’m in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It can play videos and music, but if I do the battery gets sapped so bad I’m all out of juice so I can’t……um….oh, yeah. Make phone calls. And now I daydream about my phone from 5 years ago and think, “Wow. We used to be great together.”
I just had to glance over to my phone to make sure I wasn’t getting a call. She’s extremely temperamental lately, giving me fewer and fewer rings to answer incoming calls. Sometimes I think she’s laughing at me.
I’m done. I’ve tried them all. I demo gadgets, it’s my job. And I can’t find the one device that does it all for me. iPhone is soooooo close, but so far away. The promise of cool and sexy MIDs raises my eyebrows of what the possibilities might be coming, but as a confessed gadget freak, I treat the phone like a jilted lover. I’ve heard this story many times before, and it has the same ending. Something involving me crying.
So here’s what I want. It shouldn’t be too unreasonable. One device, and I want it all.
Ultimate Mobile Device Top 5
Full functioning browser. Phone browsers are the worst, let me open YouTube, and the other pages will follow. Safari on the iPhone is the closest, but give me PC java or don’t come at all.
3G is almost there, but performs like an Olympic sprinter who turns an ankle every 300ft. Fast…slow….fast….slow. Also, I want the same experience I have wired in; gaming, video streaming, remote access. Now that the Clearwire/Sprint deal is cooked, maybe we can finally see some WiMAX networks in ’08. Most of all, I think it’s long overdue to have a usable video conference for our mobile devices (it’s not like I’m asking for flying cars here).
…and I mean a game that was not made before 1985, or a spin off of Tetris. What makes the industry think just ‘cause I’m mobile I must love Pong. If you don’t know what I mean by handheld gaming, take a look at the PSP.
I’ve got a Core2Quad at home connected to the most advanced home network in 3 counties. 2TB of pics, docs, TV, and movies. When I’m on the go, I want them all. And when my device is full, I want to upload my content back home or to the web. It all started with Slingbox, now there’s no excuse to not have it all.
The deal breaker for the single device. I feel slighted working at Intel with all of our hard work making higher performing, lower power processors, and introducing battery saving technologies in Integrated GFX and NAND flash disk drives. What have the battery guys done for us lately? We’ve been through 4 generations of power reducing mobile platforms, and I’m still using the same Li-Ion battery? Get to work!!! Toshiba was working on a new laptop battery powered by manure. No thanks, but at least someone is trying.
Oh, and did I mention it had to make phone calls, too? So that’s it. My last “smartphone” has just hit the bin, and I’m going back to a slim candy bar, circa 2002. It’s like a load has been taken off my shoulders, no longer forced to max 90min talk time and 15fps video. I’m looking forward to using a mobile device without contempt. I say let your phone be itself…….that is, until I find something better……
Comments (2) >]]>Of course being ethical pays! Especially when you compare it to being unethical! I think they should have titled the story something closer to the title of this blog. The story included several interesting, if crude conclusions based on a couple of scenarios tested with groups of 97 and 218 people respectively.
Go take a look at the article – it is much better than my quick take-aways here.
1 - People are willing to pay a little more for a product produced in a socially responsible way.
2 – People are even more willing to punish a product (or producer) by paying less or avoiding the purchase if they believe that product was produced in a socially irresponsible way.
And, 3 – perhaps most importantly for business – there seems to be a threshold of goodness at which point the rewards from consumers reach a point of diminishing returns.
To be honest, I think all three of these outcomes are fairly intuitive, but it is still very interesting to see actual examples prove them out. Much of the early genesis of CSR was born from managing risks. It is this 3rd generation of CSR that has shifted focus to the business opportunity.
There is much more in the story including some great links to resources and forums for those with more interest. I guess if my 4th grade daughter had to summarize this story for future business leaders, it might go something like this.
1 – Don’t do bad things. 2 – Take care of the environment and people when making products. 3 – Be sure to communicate #1 and #2 to your customers. 4 – Be smart on your CSR investments to maximize long-term sustainability and shareholder return.
Ok, #4 is mine. She hasn’t fully grasped consumer psychology, business and CSR yet. Clearly I oversimplified. If you have your own views - add them to the comments.
Comments (1) >]]>Monday was a great day for just that reason…
I’m at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, doing communications for Intel, hoping that by getting lots of attention for the Fair we’ll see more and more kids getting excited about science, math, engineering, and technology.
On Monday, the ‘happy person’ was Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board at Intel.
Our Intel sponsorship started 12 years ago with Craig, and he has attended every year since.
We were making the long trek through the Georgia World Congress Center after a media interview when two finalists approached him excitedly. “Mr. Barrett,” they said, “we met you in Saudi Arabia last month.” http://www.intel.com/intel/citizenship/travelogue/riyadh08.htm They took pictures with him, and the trek lengthened as just this type of interaction happened over and over, including at CNN Center in the security line where one of our Intel Science Talent Search finalists—also a finalist at ISEF— came by to shake hands.
After an interview with Charles Hodson of CNN International http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/hodson.charles.html, Craig met with students at their projects, and a number of other people, before kicking off the open ceremony.
You’ll hear why he devotes significant time to Intel ISEF when you watch the following clip: he calls it the “elixir of youth.”
Comments (0) >]]>Intel sponsored Sciencewoman to participate as a expert blogger and “ology” science competition judge, and she has been sharing her experiences through photos on her science blog. There are some great comments on some of her blog posts already. Did you know she’s an ISEF alumni?
I was a nervous high school student competing at ISEF, sharing my research with the judges, and making friends from across the country. Science fairs were easily the most influential part of my pre-college education and probably the sole reason that I am a scientist today. Science fairs took a nerdy, socially awkward, bookworm and transformed her into someone with speaking, writing, investigative skills, and with confidence to take on the world. I’m not exaggerating here.
If you want to jump into the ring as an unofficial judge, here is a growing collection of videos with students from around the world describing their competing ISEF projects on our YouTube Channel Intel.
Here’s one project I just saw — Mind Mouse, controlling your computer with your mind!
Tomorrow — Thursday, May 15 — the doors open FREE to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in building B of the Georgia World Congress Center. Come get your heavy dose of humility and inspiration along with GeekDad, Shelbinator and thousands of science hungry minds.
This place will be packed! Bring your camera!
Comments (0) >]]>Caroline Wurden is from Los Alamos HIgh School in New Mexico. This is her second year at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair showing the latest advancements in her research on Plasma reactions called “Great Ball of Fire II.” Her working lab, the home garage, is where she’s been zapping plasma under differenet conditions and measuring the reactions. She says there’s similar research on this topic happening today in Germany.
Kristi Dode and Jona Basha arrived in Atlanta nearly a week early from Albania. They travel and work well together in their project to clear air pollution for children. They measured the intensity of pollution near the surface of roadways and sidewalk, down low where children walk and play. Then they developed some novel ideas for roadway materials and a pumping system that would remove significant amounts of surface pollution.
Alexander Fredrickson is from Phoenix, Arizona. His project is called Electromagnetic Accelerator Efficiency Comparison. What he’s doing is comparing coil gun vs. ray gun performance in hopes of finding new uses for these accelerators beyond wartime weaponry.
Sciencewoman was also on the scene and she share photos and descriptions of some Intel ISEF projects that caught her eye.
So far, what’s interesting to you?
Comments (0) >]]>In his post, Shelby Highsmith was gracious to invite anyone who might be in Atlanta to drop in and see for themselves:
It’s open to the public on Thursday, the 15th, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in building B of the Georgia World Congress Center and it’s free, so you really have no excuse. Well, maybe you do, but if you aren’t doing anything, I highly recommend you satisfy your inner nerd and check it out. (The students will be on hand to explain their stuff from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
So come join us!
Earlier today on the ISEF08 team blog, we posted some photos “Our Future is in Their Hands” with a collection of cool photos like this:
Here are a few photos I shot on the scene today, just before official judging began:
Comments (3) >]]>Imagino que centenas de cartões foram trocados. Estimo cerca de 150 pessoas, que foi o número aproximado de pen-drives dados como presente a todos que visitaram o stand da Intel. Fiz contatos, conversei com bastante gente. Tão importante quanto saber as últimas novidades de mobilidade e convergência, é o networking.
Não deixe de conferir a cobertura do evento aqui no blog Brasil Digital.
Comments (0) >]]>Para um público formado por profissionais de TI, com um bom trânsito pelos diversos sabores de sistemas operacionais disponíveis no mercado, o papo fluiu bem. No final, nas perguntas, a grande questão do momento: plataformas abertas. Cada uma mostrou como interage com essa tecnologia, seja de forma direta ora adotando soluções abertas (e.g., Linux em gadgets Nokia), ora suportando ao mesmo tempo que concorre (e.g., ODF suportado pela Microsoft).
Em seguida, mediados pelo Guido Orlando (diretor da VoIT), um debate sobre mobilidade e convergência na visão do usuário. Maria de Fátima (Assembléia Legislativa), Marcelo Duarte (Banco Carrefour), Marcelo Kawamoto (ESPN) e Gustavo Correia (ACE Seguradora) explicaram inicialmente como suas organizações usam a mobilidade e isso impacta na sua relação com o usuário final, ou seja, o cliente. Outras discussões giraram ao redor de como o board das empresas encara novas tecnologias e discussões sobre mobilidade.
Comments (0) >]]>A HTC fez uma introdução sobre sua presença no Brasil e o fato de serem inovadores em termos de criação de smartphones. A HTC tem seu “dedo” em muitos dos aparelhos mais conhecidos do público. A grande questão que surge é o que influencia a adoção de aparelhos convergentes? Resposta simples: aplicações, usabilidade e design.
Já a Nokia mostra que em 2010 teremos cerca de 4 bilhões de aparelhos celulares no mundo. Alguns desses usuários terão a primeira experiência de conexão à internet via celular. Também ficamos sabendo que pesquisas mostram que 80% das empresas já perderam equipamentos e isso representa 35% da perda de informações de uma organização. Hoje é muito mais provável que um executivo perca seu notebook no táxi do que a empresa ser invadida por hackers. O negócio está exposto.
O Brasil não está mais atrasado em relação ao mundo quando falamos de tecnologia, pelo menos essa é a visão da RIM, fabricante do Blackberry. No último ano a RIM cresceu de 8 milhões de usuários (jan) para 14 milhões no primeiro trimestre. E uma das funções da empresa, como fabricante, é evitar que os dados excedam a capacidade da rede, o que pode causar problemas estranhos.
Não vou dizer que as soluções se assemelham. Mas a função de todas é muito parecida. Todas são preocupadas com segurança e possuem soluções que “matam” os dados remotamente em caso de perda ou roubo de um smartphone. As soluções de e-mail também estão todas otimizadas para o mercado corporativo. E sempre o PIM (Personal Information Management ) faz parte das aplicações padrão de cada um dos sistemas. Cada uma com sua tecnologia entrega o que o mercado corporativo quer. E, claro, há especializações entre eles, detalhes a serem discutidos no debate sobre sistemas operacionais logo mais.
Comments (0) >]]>Dentro das tendências em mobilidade corporativa, ocorre um crescimento de uso de voz devido à concorrência entre operadoras de celular. As tarifas para o mercado corporativo ficam mais baratas. Além disso o uso de 3G está crescendo rapidamente. O mercado deve triplicar nos próximos 4 anos. E o e-mail continua como a aplicação “matadora” dentro do mercado corporativo.
Existem também tendências mais gerais do mercado de mobilidade. Um deles é a experiência de uso do usuário. Aparelhos como o iPhone trouxeram uma interface muito mais fácil de usar que é (e será) copiada pelos concorrentes. O “Efeito Google”, ou seja, Android e redes de 700 Mhz, estão fazendo modelos de negócios serem reescritos. Além de tudo isso as tecnologias usadas nos celulares permitem aumento do UGC, conteúdo gerado pelo usuário.
WiMax é citado como uma tecnologia que está crescendo em uso no mundo todo como um nicho de tecnológico muitas vezes usadas por países em desenvolvimento que não possuem outra infraestrutura de tecnologia de “última milha”. Nos EUA existe a previsão de em 2010 cerca de 50% da população ser atendida pela tecnologia.
Comments (0) >]]>Intel
No stand da Intel, o Fabiano Sabo (foto), Engenheiro de Aplicações demonstra a tecnologia vPro. É interessante e, diria, genial de tão simples. Um dos grandes problemas dos departamentos de TI das empresas é gerenciar/ fazer manutenção, essas coisas, de toda a base instalada de uma empresa. Claro, existem vários softwares que executam essa tarefa tranqüilamente, mas todas necessitam de um software rodando no computador remoto para poder ser operado.
A tecnologia vPro é diferente pois é baseada em hardware e não software. Máquinas que possuem vPro podem ser gerenciados remotamente desde o boot. É possível acessar remotamente a BIOS, o próprio sistema operacional, etc. Ao invés de ter controle sobre a máquina remota por meio de um software, o hardware controla isso. Uma conseqüência é que, se o notebook ou desktop permitirem, podemos até gerenciar um computador rodando Linux, por exemplo, sem instalar nada na máquina remota. Interessante.
Demais stands
A HTC trouxe alguns smartphones e o destaque ficou como o HTC Touch Duo, que é um Touch um pouco maior mas que possui um teclado semi-qwerty (uma tecla, duas letras) embutido. A Avaya, em seu stand, trouxe demonstração de aparelhos de telefonia corporativo. Já a Nokia demonstrava a tecnologia Intellisync com sua gama de aparelhos rodando Symbian. Por fim, a Blackberry também mostra suas soluções para o mercado corporativo.
Comments (0) >]]>Over the past few months, I’ve spent so much time reviewing numbers for this report – from the gallons of water we use, to the number of hours volunteered by our employees, to the number of teachers trained in our education programs. Companies are increasingly expected to quantify their CSR efforts in their public reporting. It’s easier to do this in some areas of corporate responsibility than in others to be sure. However, my evening with the students in Chandler reminded me that the numbers, while important, can only tell part of the story.
So it was a beautiful spring Arizona evening – students, parents, teachers, school administrators and scholarship donors all sat in rows on the outdoor patio to listen to the accomplishments of some very impressive young men and women. Many had grade point averages over 4.0 and had received impressive academic awards. Many had taken on leadership roles in different student organizations or gave back to their communities through volunteering and service projects. Some had managed to excel in their academics despite significant hardships and challenges – like losing a parent, coping with a disease, or needing to hold down two jobs to help with their family’s financial situation or because they knew they would have to pay their own way through college.
Intel sponsored three scholarships at the event – one for a senior in each of the three high schools – to support them in pursuing degrees in engineering or computer science. We also surprised each with a laptop computer to take with them to college next year. When I got up on the stage to announce the Intel scholarship recipients, the students didn’t yet know that they had been selected – so were very surprised and excited when their names were announced. When one of the young women came up on stage – she was so surprised and overcome that it caught me a bit off-guard – and it was hard not to get a little emotional myself.
But it was what she said to me as we walked off the stage together that really got me. This young woman who said she loves science and math, who wants to study to become an engineer, who worked two jobs at one point in addition to all of her extracurricular activities and still managed to pull off a 4.0 GPA, just looked straight at me and shaking her head still in disbelief that she had been selected, simply said, “I’ve just worked so hard….” To me, this is the real motivation for our programs and scholarships - these impressive students who work so hard and are so passionate about learning. These students who we can hopefully help make it just a little easier for them to reach their goals. It’s these individual students with inspiring and humbling stories – the students behind these numbers – that serve as important reminders of the real impact that our education programs and investments can have.
Comments (2) >]]>Last week I attended the SAP SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando. Intel was there at the request of SAP’s CSR VP, James Farrar. James had organized a team of people representing business, consulting, NGOs, etc., to discuss how social media or web 2.0 can potentially have a huge impact on environmental issues such as sustainability, climate change, etc., and on the world’s social challenges, such as poverty, education, etc. The web as we know has the unprecedented ability to connect people and drive collective behavior.
These emerging social media tools could dramatically affect the way people and communities organize, support causes, interact with corporations; etc. Below are a few webs sites we discussed that are working in this area:
www.Carrotmob.org Have you heard of a Buy-cott? We have all heard of boycotts, but this concept is leveraging the power of money to get a company to do good things, using a carrot versus a stick. This group organized consumers in San Francisco to buy out everything in a small community store because the store had committed to use a percentage of the profit to decrease their carbon footprint by retrofitting or replacing old equipment. It’s a nascent group but a very interesting concept—uniting the power of consumers to reward companies for good behavior.
www.kiva.org This site allows you and me to get directly into the microfinance business. It’s the world’s first person-person micro-lending web-site that allows individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world.
www.Donorschoose.org This group, which has actually been around for awhile, provides a simple way to give students the resources they need and that public schools often cannot provide. At this web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn.
Comments (1) >]]>In GeekDad’s post from earlier today he remembers his student science project and invites others to join him:
Intel has decided to send yours truly, the lowly Editor of GeekDad, to Atlanta to cover the fair for two days! I’ll be at the fair Thursday and Friday, taking pictures and video, talking to the kids and the adults (and especially any geeky parents) who are so passionate about science. And if any of our readers are going as well, please drop me a line at my contact email, and I’ll make sure to connect with you and hopefully include you in my posts from the fair!
I’ll be on the look out, hoping to get the chance to meet il Papa’ di Geek.
Comments (0) >]]>