Tag Archives: Google Science Fair

Google Science Fair 2016: a look back, and a giant leap ahead

Posted by Shree Bose, 2011 Google Science Fair winner 

Editor's note: Today’s post comes from our first-ever Google Science Fair Grand Prize winner in 2011, Shree Bose. Back for the annual Science Fair five years later, here she shares her own story as a glimpse of what’s in store for this year’s winners. Thanks to our partners at Lego Education, National Geographic, Scientific American and Virgin Galactic for another great year of Google Science Fair. In case you missed it, you can still catch the livestream!


Five years ago to the day, I was a finalist in the first-ever Google Science Fair — a program where any student 13-18 is invited to solve the world’s biggest challenges through science and technology. I was fascinated by the peculiar ways cancer cells process energy and wondered if we might be able to target those processes. So, the idea behind my project was to study AMP kinase, an energy protein, to understand its importance in the way ovarian cancer cells develop resistance to drugs. I was 17 when I won the Grand Prize, and my life hasn’t been the same since.



Today 20 of the world’s brightest young scientists have that same chance ahead of them, and I am so excited and grateful to be here with them in Mountain View to re-live that experience.
The 2016 Google Science Fair finalists 

Meeting President Obama(!)
Official White House photo by Pete Souza
For me, the Google Science Fair took my passion for science and gave me a global platform to share it with the world. I went on to do my undergraduate studies at Harvard University, majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Global Health and Health Policy. My interest in using new metabolic tools to study cancer has led me to Duke University School of Medicine, where I’m currently pursuing an MD/PhD and looking forward to a career that brings together clinical medicine and basic science. But five years ago, it was the Google Science Fair that first provided me with the platform to share my ideas, unlocking doors to some incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities: meeting President Obama, speaking at TEDx events all over the world and being included on Glamour magazine’s list of Top 10 College Women.


Back at Google today, I witnessed more than 500 students from local Bay Area schools — a majority that qualified for Title I funding — as they asked questions, found inspiration, and saw science and engineering in new, unexpected ways. Those students had a chance to talk to the finalists, from 9 countries, who are working on things like better diagnosing cancer, fighting drought with fruit, training robotic hands, developing compostable feminine sanitary products and so much more. (I also have to point out, this is the first year a majority of the finalists are female, which makes me especially proud!)
My sincere congratulations to all of this year’s Google Science Fair finalists and winners. You might “just” be teenagers, but you’re also amazing researchers, entrepreneurs, technologists and explorers who are challenging themselves — and all of the rest of us — to make things better. To quote last year’s Google Science Fair winner (and my friend) Olivia Hallisey who is also back here this week as a judge: “Every one of us, no matter our age or background, can make a difference. But change doesn’t happen overnight, and it often starts with a question. So look at the world around you, and challenge yourself to make something better.”

As for me, the Science Fair gave me the confidence to continue asking questions, developing a passion for science and engineering, and even to co-found Piper, a company focused on developing electrical engineering kits for kids to learn the basics of building hardware. I just can’t wait to see where you will be five years from today.

And finally, announcing the 2016 Google Science Fair winners:

The 2016 Google Science Fair winners!

Sixteen science and engineering projects that could make the world a better place

Posted by Andrea Cohan, Google Science Fair Program Lead

Editor's note: Today, we’re announcing 16 Global Finalists for Google Science Fair 2016. One of these top projects will become the Grand Prize Winner, announced live at the sixth annual Awards Celebration in September from Mountain View, California. To follow the final stages of this year’s competition, visit the Google Science Fair site, and follow along with us on Google+ and Twitter.

Thousands of projects. Hundreds of countries. Months of anticipation.

Please join us in celebrating the 2016 class of Google Science Fair Global Finalists!

From a breathalyzer test that could predict lung cancer to a carbon filter that may significantly decrease styrofoam waste, these top 16 projects from 9 countries around the world, represent the brightest ideas to make things better through science and engineering.

Meet the finalists 
Please join us and our partners — LEGO Education, Scientific American, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic — as we welcome the 2016 Global Finalists and their incredible ideas.

Lactose-free milk for everyone!
Maria (16) - Brazil
Maria (16) of Londrina, Brazil, wanted to solve a stomach-upsetting problem: around the world, most communities have a high percentage of people who don't produce the enzyme needed to properly digest milk, and in Brazil, at least 50 million people are affected. Buying lactose-free milk and non-dairy alternatives like soy or almond milk can be extremely expensive and difficult for most people to afford regularly, and while food manufacturers can produce lactose-free products fairly easily, the final product can reduce the quality and nutrient value of the milk in production. So Maria set out to create an affordable capsule that anyone can add to milk directly to neutralize its lactose in the comfort of their own home. After multiple experiments, she produced a reusable capsule that works from fridge temperatures to up to 37 degrees Celsius, and it performs equally well in both low-fat and regular fat milk. Her capsule can be reused to effectively neutralize the lactose enzymes in milk for up to seven days, and costs just pennies. Maria is excited to make her solution for removing lactose from milk easily accessible to anyone.

Fighting foam waste with recycled filters
Ashton (14), Julia (14), Luke (14) - United States
Ashton, Julia, and Luke (14) were stunned to learn how much expanded polystyrene waste (like disposable foam cups) littered the beaches of Central America. Back at home in Columbus, OH, the group were also dismayed to find that the US alone produces millions of pounds of polystyrene foam annually. This material takes up a quarter of America's landfills, and can take hundreds of years to degrade. Hoping to find a solution for recycling the material, the group's research showed that polystyrene foam is so difficult and expensive to recycle that most communities don't even make the effort to include it in their recycling efforts. Since expanded polystyrene consists of over 90% carbon, these young scientists put their heads together to see if they could find a cost-effective way to convert the material into something useful: carbon filters that can remove contaminants from polluted water. After testing several chemicals to break down the waste into an effective filter, the trio hit the jackpot, producing a carbon filter that could not only decrease polystyrene waste from any landfill, but also make water safe to drink.

Malaria monitoring on the go
Nikhil (15) - United States
Nikhil (15), a student living in New Jersey, had a serious family health scare when his aunt nearly died of a particularly resistant malaria strain in 2015. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide annually, mainly in less developed countries like Africa and India. Nikhil's aunt lives in a rural part of India, and while she was able to receive basic diagnosis and treatment, her doctor did not have access to laboratories that could determine how much of the malaria parasite she had in her blood, and to what degree her medications were working to remove them. His aunt almost didn't recover because of this, so Nikhil was determined to create an affordable solution to test for more than just whether or not a patient has malaria. Expanding on the basic principles of enzyme analysis used in immunology, he built an app and device that can analyze malaria parasite levels in the blood that requires no lab and minimal power: all you need is a photo from a smartphone camera to analyze the light and $50 worth of materials. Nikhil is currently in talks with the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and hopes to share his malaria testing solution with the world.

No more thirsty crops
Kiara (16) - Johannesburg 
Kiara (16) lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, which like other nearby countries, is suffering from the worst drought the region has seen in over 20 years. Kiara believes that a critical solution to long term water needs is a special material that can hold hundreds of times their weight in water while stored within soil. Typically, these materials are man-made and filled with harmful chemicals that are both non-biodegradable and too expensive for local farmers to afford. Through her research, Kiara found the ideal material in a simple orange peel, and created a way to turn this everyday waste into soil-ready water storage with help from the avocado. Kiara hopes this low-cost material can reuse food waste while helping local farmers save both money and their crops.

KeepTab: never lose your things again!
Shriank (16) - India 
In Bangalore, India, Shriank (16) enjoys engineering and coding applications to build innovative solutions that can help people in his community. He noticed that as we get older our ability to keep track of items we use on a daily basis deteriorates. This can make life particularly stressful and difficult for people with memory-related illnesses like dementia, Alzheimer's disease, or amnesia. So Shriank created a wearable device that can keep track of static (non-moving) objects in the world around you, as well as objects you may pick up and move yourself. While wearing the device, you can use Google Now to easily find out where you left everything from your medicine to your keys. With the ability to track objects with over 90% accuracy in ambient light, the KeepTab app relies on only your smartphone and your wearable device, making it easy to use and afford. Shriank hopes his invention can help people struggling with memory loss to improve the quality of their everyday lives.

Powerful Paint: the next generation battery 
Marion (18), Joy (18), and Sonia (18) - Singapore 
Marion, Joy, and Sonia (18) live in Singapore and specialize in three different scientific fields: biomedical research, chemical engineering, and chemistry. These students decided to improve the design of the modern supercapacitor: an energy storage device that outperforms batteries significantly. It also lasts for over a decade, requiring less frequent replacement versus chemically-based batteries that can harm the environment as waste. Today, supercapacitors are physically created and mounted onto the surface of a device (like a smartphone). But, given their rigid shape, it can be difficult to apply them to non-standard shapes and they can be easily damaged. The trio of scientists created a paintable supercapacitor design: completely flexible, their design can adhere to a wide variety of surface types and still retain a significant amount of energy even when damaged. The group hopes their new design will be used throughout the electronics industry to improve devices like smartphones and even hybrid electric cars, making renewable, portable energy easily accessible for everyone.

Keeping farms alive on a budget 
Mphatso (18) - Zambia
 
In Lusaka, Zambia, family involvement in local politics has made Mphatso (18) keenly interested in reducing poverty in his community. As Southern Africa struggles to recover from its worst drought in decades, farmers are seeing their crops destroyed due to El Nino weather changes, leading to famine for millions. Without crops, farmers can't make a living, making it harder than ever for them to pay for the farming supplies they need to keep their farms fertile and their families thriving. To help local farmers find low-cost, affordable solutions for pesticides and fertilizers, Mphatso investigated alternative ways of generating the supplies farmers need. He created a simple, portable production station that requires basic cooking materials like charcoal and local plant leaves from the ground. Based on his methods, Mphatso believes farmers can save hundreds of British Pounds in costs, saving ~50% on fertilizers and ~80% on pesticides to help them produce better, more abundant crops.

Smart wound care for the future 
Anushka (13) - United States 
Anushka (13) lives in Portland, Oregon and she really enjoys chemistry. Inspired by Marie Curie, whose work contributed to major advances in modern medicine, Anushka wanted to find a solution for a commonly overlooked medical problem: chronic wound care. In the US there are about 165 million injuries a year, and many of those patients suffer from chronic, larger wounds that require more complex care. Recent science shows advanced wounds need a wet environment to heal, and if dressings are changed too often, these wounds can take weeks or even months to heal. This leaves many patients susceptible to recurring infections and pain for unnecessarily long periods. Anushka wanted to create a sensor that could help doctors analyze the state of a wound without removing its dressing, and after multiple iterations on her design, she created an ideal sensor design that is cheap to build and biocompatible. Anushka believes her solution can help people suffering from chronic wounds heal more quickly, so they can get back to living life.

Flawless cars through the power of light
Nishita (13) - United States
Nishita (13), of San Jose, California, loves coding, physics, and biology. Fascinated with how cars are produced in vehicle manufacturing plants, she was surprised to discover that human specialists perform random visual tests to subjectively determine whether a car's exterior has any defects later in the car production process. This can mean expensive corrections, slowing car production down and lots of extra metal waste late in the process. Nishita was inspired to design an automated scanning system that can accurately find defects in metal sheeting at the beginning of the production process. Her system analyzes light reflection to detect dents, scratches, and other defects that aren't easily seen by the human eye. Nishita believes her system can easily be implemented via robotic arms in automated car production lines, and she hopes that her work can help reduce factory waste, improve car quality, and keep car costs low.

Saving our breath: detecting lung cancer early 
Xin Yong (18) - Malaysia
Xin Yong (18) of Seremban, Malaysia, was shocked and worried when he heard that his mathematics teacher, a non-smoker, had suddenly developed advanced lung cancer - the most common form of cancer in the world. Whether or not smoking is the cause, patients’ breath contains similar chemicals once they have the disease. As a young scientist particularly interested in nanotechnology, Xin Yong used his skills to create a sensor that can detect the progression of lung cancer by analyzing their breath. He tested his device on patients formally diagnosed with cancer, as well as patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (who were yet to be diagnosed), and finally patients who were non-smokers and not diagnosed to have pulmonary disease. Xin Yong's device costs only $1, is easy for anyone to operate, and it can provide test results within 10 minutes. Given that the device only requires the patient to breathe into it, it's an easy test to administer. Xin Yong believes his device can help doctors and patients to catch lung cancer early enough to treat it easily and potentially eliminate the cancer entirely.

Beating breast cancer with better tests 
Anika (14) - United States
As a young woman, Anika (14) of Cupertino, California is acutely aware of the health problems facing women around the world. In particular, breast cancer is the second leading cause of death for women with cancer, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Curious about how current medicine predicts the likelihood of breast cancer, she researched testing methods and was disturbed to discover that more than 1/3 of the predictive tests using digital mammograms are inaccurate, relying on a 64% Area Under the Curve (AUC) accuracy that is too low to be useful. So, Anika set out to create a more accurate testing model, designing software that analyzes digital mammograms with 84% AUC accuracy. Anika is excited to offer a solution for predicting breast cancer that could eliminate costly and painful invasive procedures for women while helping them enjoy healthier, longer lives.

Smart Snapshots: storytelling with smartphones
Ryan (15) - United States
Hailing from Arlington, Virginia, Ryan (15) loves programming and building apps. With his smartphone always by his side, he found himself wondering if the camera on his phone could be used to analyze a substance and immediately recognize that substance. After heavy research and experimentation, he coded a software program that analyzed images taken with and without the infrared smartphone camera setting to test them for color and shape to identify the exact substance. He used common items like food scraps, cotton cloth, aluminum foil, and a leaf for his tests, and his application correctly identified the substances in every case. Ryan hopes infrared imaging smartphone technology can be used by the health industry along with his program to identify substances like cancerous cells quickly at a relatively low cost or hazardous substances to protect scientists without the use of lab equipment.

Avoiding landfills with sreshto pads 
Saliha (15) - Bangladesh
Growing up in Pakistan and Bangladesh opened Saliha's (15) eyes to the sheer volume of waste being generated by these densely populated areas, leading her community to host some of the world's largest landfills. Determined to find a solution to cut down on non-biodegradable waste, Saliha turned to a common personal hygiene item: sanitary pads. With the local economy booming with the sanitary industry, she knew it was only a matter of time before landfills would become overwhelmed with these products, which contain plastics and harmful chemicals. So, Saliha created a safer, chemical-free option made entirely of plant materials that will degrade in just two year's time. She hopes her new "Sreshto" pads will help more local women feel comfortable while also making the environment safer for everyone.

Streamlining rockets for space
Charlie (16) - United States

Charlie (16) lives on Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts and he's fascinated with aerospace engineering, particularly rockets. Rockets are used in everything from exploring space to environmental research and the global positioning systems that help us figure out where we're going with our smartphone map apps. He's been building his own rockets since 6th grade, and Charlie was recently inspired to find out if he could make jet rockets even more efficient. Typical jet performance is controlled by fins built with complex mechanical pieces that can weigh down a jet and lead it to perform at lower speeds and altitudes. After experimenting with multiple fin types, Charlie determined that Synthetic Jet Actuators offer the best aerodynamic control for rockets. The more efficient rockets are, the less fuel they'll use, keeping costs low. Charlie believes that if the Synthetic Jet Actuator is used in the production of all rockets they'll be even more effective at performing their various missions on Earth or in space.

More rice with less water 
Mansha (15) - India
 
In India, over 50% of people in India depend on agriculture, including rice cultivation, to make a living, but many farmers do not have the resources or knowledge to efficiently manage these crops. Even more alarmingly, many rice crops waste high volumes of water due to this problem, and farmers often over-water their crops, negatively impacting their own rice yields. Eager to find a solution, Mansha (15) of Hyderabad, India, wanted to create a low-cost way to monitor water levels in rice paddy fields as well as automate water levels for the best possible crop yields. She designed an automated irrigation system that waters crops based on their age, with the potential to save 30% of the water normally used per hectare of land as well as increase rice crop yields by up to 13%. Mansha looks forward to seeing her system conserve significant amounts of water while improving crops and minimizing financial stress and labor for farmers.

ExoHeal: Retraining your brain with robots 
Zain (16) - Saudi Arabia
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Zain (16) became interested in robotics at a young age and wondered how he could help the 200 million people living with disabilities worldwide. Many of these people suffer from lost motor function, and while some rehabilitation centers do offer robotic exoskeletons in recovery therapy, the equipment is often bulky, expensive, and focused only on assisting patients with regular exercise. Zain had a question: could an exoskeletal robot retrain a patient's brain to develop new pathways and completely recover or improve their motor skills? Using the human hand for inspiration, Zain designed an exoskeletal robotic glove that mimics the movement of a sensor hand in parallel. After testing, he found that his own motor skills in the "learning" hand appeared to be improved after use. Featuring a design that's lightweight and completely customizable to the wearer's hands, Zain believes his "ExoHeal" device can help physically disabled patients around the world navigate more easily through life.

What’s next for the Global Finalists? 
This is just the beginning. We can’t wait to welcome these 13-18 year olds to the sixth annual Google Science Fair Awards Celebration in California for the chance to win one of our awards including a $50,000 scholarship. Here, an esteemed panel of judges will review the 16 finalists and announce the much-anticipated winners. Don’t miss the Awards Celebration, livestreamed on our website, on September 27th.

Science Fair 2016: GPS system to help keep fisherman safe at sea wins Community Impact Award, Asia

This year, the Google Science Fair invited students from around the world to use science and engineering to make something better. From creating more eco-friendly fuel to making our water safe to drink, we were so impressed with the creative and thoughtful solutions to big world problems that students shared with us.


Out of the thousands of projects from over 107 countries, we're excited to share the Top 100 ideas selected by the judges, including 14 projects from students across India. Check out the full list of the 100 Google Science Fair Regional Finalists here.


These 100 Regional Finalists are all in the running to become one of the 16 Global Finalists, who will join us in Mountain View on September 27 for our sixth annual Awards Celebration.


2016 Community Impact Award Winner — Asia


In addition to our regional finalists, please join us in congratulating the Community Impact Award winner from Asia, Advay Ramesh! Advay, who lives in Chennai, used science and engineering to make his community better by creating a mobile GPS to keep fishermen safe from invisible maritime boundary lines.


Fourteen-year old Advay was dismayed to hear how often local Rameswaram fishermen were captured and arrested for long periods of time due to making a simple mistake: crossing an International Maritime Boundary line it was impossible for them to see. Given the high penalties and impact to fishermen's livelihoods, Advay wanted to create an easy-to-use GPS system to send alerts when sailors approached maritime borders or when better fishing was available in another area. The system can also alert fishermen to dangerous weather conditions, so they can steer clear. Advay's invention is designed to work on any type of handheld mobile device, and he hopes that with it more local fishermen can avoid financial hardship and stay safe at sea.


Advay particularly likes math and science. He hopes to study engineering at a top college so he can work on technology products one day. Advay is also very active in sports, and he enjoys playing soccer and cricket.


Thanks to the generous support of our partners — LEGO Education, Scientific American, National Geographic, and Virgin Galactic — Community Impact winners will receive mentoring and educational scholarships to help them make the world a better place through science, math, and engineering. They’ll also be joining our Global Finalists at Google HQ for our Awards Celebration.


To find out who the 16 Global Finalists will be, check out the Google Science Fair site on August 11, and keep up with news about the fair on Google+ and Twitter.


Posted by Andrea Cohan, Program Lead, Google Science Fair

Congratulating the 2016 Google Science Fair Community Impact Award Winners and Regional Finalists

Posted by Andrea Cohan, Google Science Fair Program Lead

This year, the Google Science Fair invited students from around the world to use science and engineering to make something better. And they did not disappoint. From creating more eco-friendly fuel to making our water safe to drink, we were so impressed with the creative and thoughtful solutions to big world problems that students shared with us. Out of the thousands of projects from over 107 countries, we're excited to share the Top 100 ideas selected by the judges.

Check out the full list of the 100 Google Science Fair Regional Finalists.

These 100 Regional Finalists are all in the running to become one of the 16 Global Finalists, who will join us in Mountain View on September 27 for our sixth annual Awards Celebration.

In addition to these regional finalists, please join us in congratulating the five Community Impact winners! From 25 finalists, the judges had the tough choice of choosing five winners; one for each top project that focuses on fixing a difficult problem across North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. From a water filter made from seashells to using food waste to combat drought, you’ll want to check these out so read on to find out more about these incredible projects.

North America: Sea Shells for Water Safety

In 2014, Alex (15) was disappointed to see how difficult it was for the average inner city family to access lead-free drinking water during Flint, Michigan's water crisis in 2014. Eager to create an affordable lead filter option for people to use, he began researching the issue and found that water served to over 6M people across the US contains lead levels that can cause serious illnesses in children and adults. His experiments showed that you can avoid using traditional filters that require a dangerous and environmentally unsafe acid bath, and instead use simple products like sugar, water, a heating mechanism -- and, surprisingly, seashells. Highly absorbent and cheap to create, Alex's new filter lasts for at least 30 days, reducing both lead and iron levels by over 60%. Alex hopes this new solution can be used in his local community and around the US to remove lead from their local water supply until lead pipes can be replaced with safer options.

More about Alex: Alex was excited to discover the world of science with help from his dad, who's an engineer. Alex is inspired most by scientists who think outside the box to make radical discoveries that help society, like Nicola Tesla and Albert Einstein. Alex looks forward to attending college to further his education so he can continue to solve problems through science.

Latin America: Better Water for Brazil with Seed Magic

In November 2015, a mining dam failure in Brazil led to an ecological disaster when 62M cubic metres of iron-rich mud contaminated 500 km of the River Doce, polluting drinking and irrigation water for 500K people. João (15) and Leticia (18), have been affected by multiple water pollution crises like this one alongside thousands of other people across Brazil. With limited access to advanced treatment resources for restoring local water supplies, particularly when in the middle of an environmental crisis, these students wanted to find an affordable and accessible way for Brazilians to easily treat their water. It was also important to João and Leticia to find an answer that would not introduce even more pollution to the environment. They were excited to discover that the local moringa plant seemed to be a perfect solution: already plentiful in the region and popular to the local diet, the seed cakes left over in local food processing work as biodegradable water filters. João and Leticia look forward to introducing this filtering system to their local community of Fortaleza and across all of Brazil.

More about João and Leticia: João enjoys math, physics, and chemistry, which led him to meeting scientific Olympiads while in high school. They inspired him to pursue science more seriously in his studies, and he now looks forward to helping society and making a real difference through his studies. Leticia comes from a low-income family that values education, and she grew up testing scientific theories for fun. She dreams of using her talents to help people in a way that really matters for their lives, and hopes her upcoming enrollment at Stanford University, California, will help her make that dream come true.

Asia: Keeping Fishermen Safe at Sea

In Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Advay (14) was dismayed to hear how often local Rameswaram fishermen were captured and arrested for long periods of time due to making a simple mistake: crossing an International Maritime Boundary line it was impossible for them to see. Given the high penalties and impact to fishermen's livelihoods, Advay wanted to create an easy-to-use GPS system to send alerts when sailors approached maritime borders or when better fishing was available in another area. The system can also alert fishermen to dangerous weather conditions, so they can steer clear. Advay's invention is designed to work on any type of handheld mobile device, and he hopes that with it more local fishermen can avoid financial hardship and stay safe at sea.

More about Advay: Advay particularly likes math and science. He hopes to study engineering at a top college so he can work for a tech company one day. Advay is also very active in sports, and he enjoys playing soccer and cricket.



Africa: No More Thirsty Crops

Kiara (16) lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, which like other nearby countries, is suffering from the worst drought the region has seen in over 20 years. Kiara believes that a critical solution to long term water needs is a special material that can hold hundreds of times their weight in water while stored within soil. Typically, these materials are man-made and filled with harmful chemicals that are both non-biodegradable and too expensive for local farmers to afford. Kiara found an ideal material that won't hurt the budget in the simple orange peel, and through her research, she created a way to turn them into soil-ready water storage with help from the avocado. Kiara hopes this low-cost material can reduce juice manufacturing waste while helping local farmers save both money and their crops.

More about Kiara: Kiara's love of chemistry, physics, and food have led her to dream of becoming a scientist specializing in agricultural science and molecular gastronomy. Kiara's scientific inspiration comes from M.S Swaminathan, who shares her belief that sustainable agricultural practices are critical within India and throughout the world.

Europe: Making Turkey Earthquake-Ready with Recycled Cans
İlayda (15) and Ezgi (15) live in Turkey and attend school together. The 7.1 earthquake that hit Turkey in 2011 claimed over 600 lives, and local scientists predict that the next decade could bring even more damage as tension continues to build along the North Anatolian Fault line. Given that many of Turkey's buildings are older, scientists have appealed to officials to help the country retrofit its buildings and train city workers to handle a potential earthquake disaster that could claim thousands of lives. Inspired to help, İlayda and Ezgi sought an affordable way to retrofit local buildings in their community with an easily available material: aluminium cans. The pair designed a solution that can be used to fill traditional concrete walls, increasing their ability to absorb impact damage from 32% to 61%. The students hope to keep their community safe from earthquakes with their new design.

More about İlayda and Ezgi: İlayda dreams of studying biology abroad and teaching in her field. Her scientific heroes are Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking because of their courage, open-mindedness, curiosity, and patience. As a lover of both art and science, Ezgi hopes to follow Leonardo da Vinci's lead. She's also inspired by the inventors Tommy Flowers and Benjamin Franklin, and she hopes to study mechanical engineering abroad.

Thanks to the generous support of our partners — LEGO Education, Scientific American, National Geographic, and Virgin Galactic — Community Impact winners will receive mentoring and educational scholarships to help them make the world a better place through science, math, and engineering. They’ll also be joining our Global Finalists at Google HQ for our Awards Celebration.

To find out who the 16 Global Finalists will be, check out the Google Science Fair site on Aug 11, and keep up with news about the fair on Google+ and Twitter.

Meet the 2016 Google Science Fair Community Impact Finalists

Posted by Andrea Cohan, Google Science Fair Program Lead

Editor's note: Tune into the Google Science Fair website on July 18th to find out which five young scientists below will win their regional Community Impact Award! With the generous support of our partners, these winners will receive mentors and scholarships to help them further their education and inspiring projects. To keep an eye on the competition, visit the Google Science Fair site, and follow along on Google+ and Twitter.

Through the Google Science Fair, we've invited today's brightest young minds to answer an important question: how can they make the world better through science, math, and engineering? We received thousands of extremely impressive answers to this question from over 107 countries this year, and we can’t wait to announce the winners later in September.

But before we get there, we want to first recognize the projects that aim to solve tough community challenges like providing clean drinking water, keeping people safe from natural disasters, and fighting droughts. This year, we'll be giving not just one, but five regional Community Impact Awards: one for each top project that focuses on fixing a difficult resource problem across North America, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa, Asia & the Pacific Islands and Europe.

Please join us and our partners — LEGO Education, Scientific American, National Geographic and Virgin Galactic — in celebrating the top 25 global Community Impact Award finalists below:


NORTH AMERICA

Keeping Shores Sparkling with the Trusty Mangrove Oyster
José Luis (16) has a passion for protecting the environment and regularly volunteers for beach clean-ups in his hometown of Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Inspired to protect the beaches he loves so much, José Luis set out to find an environmentally safe way to preserve the beauty of the shore's ecosystem. He found the answer in a surprising resource: mangrove oysters! While this delicacy found on Caribbean and South American Atlantic coasts is a popular dish with locals, José Luis discovered that they're also highly efficient organic filters. With the ability to quickly process ~15L of contaminated water within 2 hours without any negative impact on the environment, José Luis believes the mangrove oyster is a safe, cost-effective way to restore and maintain the Gurabo shoreline for years to come.

Saving the Day with Energy-Smart Windows
Naveena (16) wants to solve the problem of global warming, and was on a mission to find a way to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions that cause this phenomenon. With buildings contributing up to 40% of today's global energy consumption, Naveena concluded that simply making buildings more energy-efficient could reduce that consumption by as much as 100 quadrillion BTUs. Her additional research showed that while installing "smart windows" is the quickest and most-recommended solution, they can be too expensive for most people to install. Her answer? Even smarter windows! With help from a cheaper glass coating technology called SEAS-LIR, Naveena believes her Richland, WA community can save thousands of dollars on installation and energy costs, while significantly reducing its overall carbon footprint.

Sniffing Out Chemical Danger in the Air
Eeshan (14) was horrified to discover how harmful poor air quality can be to expectant mothers and young children. It turns out that typical carbon monoxide and smoke detectors can't identify some of the more common chemicals in the air, and that simply opening a window can drastically reduce complications from these pollutants. After surveying mothers in his community, Eeshan also discovered that many people have no idea if or when the air quality has reached a dangerous level around them. He devoted himself to creating a solution: an app that monitors the air around you and sends an alert with specific air improvement instructions based on the level of chemicals it finds. Eeshan hopes his device can help people keep the air safe for their loved ones at home.

Sea Shells for Water Safety 
In 2014, Alex (15) was disappointed to see how difficult it was for the average inner city family to access lead-free drinking water during Flint, Michigan's water crisis in 2014. Eager to create an affordable lead filter option for people to use, he began researching the issue and found that water served to over 6M people across the US contains lead levels that can cause serious illnesses in children and adults. His experiments showed that you can avoid using traditional filters that require a dangerous and environmentally unsafe acid bath, and instead use simple products like sugar, water, a heating mechanism -- and, surprisingly, seashells. Highly absorbent and cheap to create, Alex's new filter lasts for at least 30 days, reducing both lead and iron levels by over 60%. Alex hopes this new solution can be used in his local community and around the US to remove lead from their local water supply until lead pipes can be replaced with safer options.


Growing Fruits & Veggies In Our Own Backyards 
For John (15) and Margaret Mary (16) of Milwaukee, WI, science is a part of everyday home life. With John's talents in Biomedical Engineering, and Margaret Mary's passion for medical and environmental science, the pair decided to see how their different fields could help tackle the same science challenge together. They set out to explore whether the soil in their own backyards could support a sustainable garden for their families, even when treated with common yard care chemicals. To their surprise, it turns out that organisms beneficial to gardening can still thrive in the average suburban yard, providing local families with a yard the chance to grow their own healthy vegetables and fruit. 



LATIN AMERICA

Better Water for Brazil with Seed Magic
In November 2015, a mining dam failure in Brazil led to an ecological disaster when 62M cubic metres of iron-rich mud contaminated 500 km of the River Doce, polluting drinking and irrigation water for 500K people. João (15) and Leticia (18), have been affected by multiple water pollution crises like this one alongside thousands of other people across Brazil. With limited access to advanced treatment resources for restoring local water supplies, particularly when in the middle of an environmental crisis, these students wanted to find an affordable and accessible way for Brazilians to easily treat their water. It was also important to João and Leticia to find an answer that would not introduce even more pollution to the environment. They were excited to discover that the local moringa plant seemed to be a perfect solution: already plentiful in the region and popular to the local diet, the seed cakes left over in local food processing work as biodegradable water filters. João and Leticia look forward to introducing this filtering system to their local community of Fortaleza and across all of Brazil.

Smart Farming with Volcanic Ash
Born and raised in the agricultural towns of Northern Patagonia, Félix (17), Patricio (17), and Jeremías (16) are particularly invested in helping farmers make the most of their crops, even in the face of natural disasters. When the Calbuco Volcano erupted in April 2015, nearby farmers were also dealing with a drought. The trio posed the question: could the farmers somehow use the volcanic ash left behind to grow crops? Their experiments showed this was entirely possible -- while volcanic ash doesn't itself have meaningful nutritional content for growing crops, it does a great job of retaining water. Given local water shortages, these students hope to help farmers in Argentina and Chile revitalize their crops with help from this unexpected source.

No More Head-Scratching: Recycling With Robots
Manuel (18) and Alejandro (18) are concerned about the growing landfill problem in Colombia due to overpopulation and a lack of recycling. They noticed that most people in their community of Bello, Antioquía, Colombia seemed overwhelmed with what to do when faced with multiple recycling bins, and most locals choose not to recycle because of this hassle. Recognizing that recycling can be a difficult good habit for people to adapt to, these students combined their talents in computer science and engineering to build an automated system to solve the problem. Their simple robot tells users which waste bin to throw trash into after a simple scan. Easy! These two look forward to helping Colombians adapt more quickly to recycling, and hopes their new invention leads to a significant decrease of landfill waste in Colombia.

Building Better Biofuels with the Elephant Ear Taro 
Elkin (18) of Medellin, Colombia, studies chemical engineering and is passionate about finding a way to stop global warming through alternative green methods. Given the tropical climate of his country, he wanted to find a plant that could be used to create gasoline sustainably without negatively impacting Colombia's agriculture or air. What he found was the large-leafed 'Alocasia macrorrhiza' -- originating from Southeast Asia, the plant has flourished around the world in tropical rainforests under names like 'Giant Taro' and 'Elephant Ear Taro.' After rigorous testing, Elkin determined it could work as a great biofuel that produces less pollution and actually improves car performance. This is because the plant grows rapidly and burns more efficiently leaving fewer pollutants behind due to its higher ethanol percentages. The plant has a high starch content that produces ethanol levels of 88-90%, while corn and sugar biofuels produce 83-85% ethanol. Elkin also found that you can produce more fuel with the same amount of this plant than you can with sugar cane. Given his research, Elkin is excited to introduce this new plant as a better alternative for an environmentally-friendly ethanol fuel.

Super Green Supermarket Packaging
While walking through the supermarket in Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso, Brazil one day, Kemilly (17) saw just how much waste her grocery produced in one small, easy-to-overlook food display item: plastic and styrofoam food trays. Kemilly wondered if she could find an alternative solution that would be less harmful to the environment and avoid filling local landfills. Her research led her to a magically multi-purpose plant: the buriti palm. An indigenous tree, all parts of the palm are used by local riverside communities to produce products used in daily life, from beauty and health oils to desserts and snacks. The palm fronds are also used to produce a strong fiber that can be woven into baskets and other containers, which can last for decades while still being biodegradable. Kemilly hopes to introduce the buriti palm as an environmentally-safe alternative to throw-away packaging for her local community.


ASIA PACIFIC

Keeping Fishermen Safe at Sea 
In Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Advay (14) was dismayed to hear how often local Rameswaram fishermen were captured and arrested for long periods of time due to making a simple mistake: crossing an International Maritime Boundary line it was impossible for them to see. Given the high penalties and impact to fishermen's livelihoods, Advay wanted to create an easy-to-use GPS system to send alerts when sailors approached maritime borders or when better fishing was available in another area. The system can also alert fishermen to dangerous weather conditions, so they can steer clear. Advay's invention is designed to work on any type of handheld mobile device, and he hopes that with it more local fishermen can avoid financial hardship and stay safe at sea. 
Congo-ing Nuts: Making Dirty Water Clean
Like others in their local community in central Singapore, Tushmitha (15), Nagajothi (15), and Yan (15) come from diverse backgrounds. All too aware of how difficult it can be for people across India and Southeast Asia to access clean water, the trio wanted to create a safe, economical water filter. The students realized that while textile mills are a significant source of revenue for new economies in many developing countries in the region, they can also leave behind water contaminated with chemical dyes used to color fabrics. For their project, the group created a filter using the porous walnut shell to extract Congo Red dye, a common fabric dye, from polluted water. To their delight, their filter worked, proving that this biodegradable and common agricultural waste product just might be the perfect material to make local water safe to drink. 


Avoiding Landfills with Shresto Pads 
Growing up in Pakistan and Bangladesh opened Saliha's (15) eyes to the sheer volume of waste being generated by these densely populated areas, leading her community to host some of the world's largest landfills. Determined to find a solution to cut down on non-biodegradable waste, Saliha turned to a common personal hygiene item: sanitary pads. With the local economy booming with the sanitary industry, she knew it was only a matter of time before landfills would become overwhelmed with these products, which contain plastics and harmful chemicals. So, Saliha created a safer, chemical-free option made entirely of plant materials that will degrade in just two year's time. She hopes her new "Shresto" pads will help more local women feel comfortable while also making the environment safer for everyone.

Airin (17) hails from Kerala, India, a region known for beautiful tropical beaches and agriculture, specifically tea, coffee, and spice plantations. Given his community's dependence on farming, Airin was intrigued by a question: could he create a better greenhouse that could produce extra crops sustainably and remain safe for the environment? For his project, he created a greenhouse that recycles 100% of the carbon dioxide it produces. His design proved successful, quadrupling crop yields while also using less power, water, and money. Airin believes his greenhouse can help Kerala farmers increase their harvests and income while sparing the local air from pollution.

In Shanghai, where temperatures can drop severely in winter due to Siberian winds, pipes can often freeze and burst, disrupting the community's access to water for hours or days at a time. While identifying a frozen pipe before it bursts is one path to solving the problem, Ying (17) realized it was more important to identify a pipe that was about to freeze and adjust water temperatures before they become critical. She set herself the task of creating an engineering solution to monitor local pipes that can automatically send electrical currents to adjust water temperatures as needed. Ying hopes her design will help her local community avoid plumbing disasters during the coldest time of year.


AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST 
Rolin (15) of Cameroon is passionate about science and wants to modernize his rural community, which is located 20km from the capital of Yaoundé. In rural locations like Zamengoe, where he attends school, Rolin shook his head to still see so many people trekking miles to charge their cell phones. Even worse, many locals are still forced to rely on dangerous and expensive oil lamps to light their homes at night. Seeking a solution to keep his community connected to power without breaking the bank or causing fires, he built portable solar kits that are simple to construct and cheap to make. He even trained people in his town to create their own kits so they'll never go without basic power! He believes he can help more Cameroon communities enjoy energy safely while improving their quality of life with his new creation.



In Lusaka, Zambia, family involvement in local politics has made Mphatso (18) keenly interested in reducing poverty in his community. As Southern Africa struggles to recover from its worst drought in decades, farmers are seeing their crops destroyed due to El Nino weather changes, leading to famine for millions. Without crops, farmers can't make a living, making it harder than ever for them to pay for the farming supplies they need to keep their farms fertile and their families thriving. To help local farmers find low-cost, affordable solutions for pesticides and fertilizers, Mphatso investigated alternative ways of generating the supplies farmers need. He created a simple, portable production station that requires basic cooking materials like charcoal and local plant leaves from the ground. Based on his methods, Mphatso believes farmers can save hundreds of British Pounds in costs, saving ~50% on fertilizers and ~80% on pesticides to help them produce better, more abundant crops.



No More Thirsty Crops
Kiara (16) lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, which like other nearby countries, is suffering from the worst drought the region has seen in over 20 years. Kiara believes that a critical solution to long term water needs is a special material that can hold hundreds of times their weight in water while stored within soil. Typically, these materials are man-made and filled with harmful chemicals that are both non-biodegradable and too expensive for local farmers to afford. Kiara found an ideal material that won't hurt the budget in the simple orange peel, and through her research, she created a way to turn them into soil-ready water storage with help from the avocado. Kiara hopes this low-cost material can reduce juice manufacturing waste while helping local farmers save both money and their crops.

Himanshi (17) and Richa (17) of the science duo 'Higgs Bosons' live in Nairobi, Kenya. The pair know that like Nairobi, much of Africa is dependent on unreliable hydro-generated power. Alternative energies are expensive and hard to access, leaving many Africans struggling with a poorer quality of life and health care. Dedicated to careful research and answering life's problems with science, the students designed a new way to create power using an advanced 'periscope-derived energy device. A new take on solar and steam energy, this device channels heat from the sun through a convex lens, intensifying the energy received and using it to create steam in a nearby reservoir. Higgs Bosons believes this easy-to-assemble, affordable solution could be the answer to energy problems for communities across Africa.




In Cairo, Egypt, Sara (18), Nourhan (17), and Asmaa (17) were shocked to realize that a significant number of citizens suffer from disabilities yet receive little governmental support or resources to help improve their quality of life. In particular, people who are deaf and hard of hearing struggle to connect with the hearing community, who do not always have the patience to learn sign language. This trio worked together to create a glove that translates hand signals into letters and speech, helping the wearer to communicate more easily. The young women hope that their invention will be another powerful tool for people who are deaf and hard of hearing to navigate more easily through life.




EUROPE

Ilya (16) began exploring engineering and robotics at a young age in his home city of Moscow, Russia. When he saw a gap in affordable tools for people who are visually-impaired, he began creating a wearable 'radar' accessory that can identify nearby obstacles through vibration signals. After receiving feedback on his initial design from people who were blind or visually-impaired in his community, he created a second, lighter prototype that is even easier to wear. Embedded into a common baseball cap, this system alerts wearers to the specific direction of obstacles within 3.5m using gentle vibrations. This gives the wearer plenty of time to adjust their direction of movement, so they can safely reach their destination. Given its low production cost, Ilya hopes to see his device improve the quality of life for the visually-impaired in his community.

Tarik (17) and Amor (16), of Sarajevo, Bosnia, have seen first hand how massive floods throughout Bosnia in May 2014 caused harmful lead contamination in local soil and drinking water. Eager to find a cost-effective way to create clean water for growing crops using a cheaper material that's also close at hand, the pair discovered that the white mustard plant, which is native to Bosnia and Herzegovina, is especially talented at absorbing lead. The plant is also of course biodegradable, creating a simple and very accessible way for their community to make local water safe again.



A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Esra (13) was concerned about how difficult it can be for locals and visitors to access clean drinking water without worrying about lead contamination in highly industrialized areas. Most visitors are advised to drink bottled water, and to avoid getting tap water in their mouths when taking showers or brushing their teeth! Inspired to create a new filtering solution that can help people avoid this problem, Esra investigated the use of mussel shells as a filtering device. His work showed that mussel shells are ideally suited to absorbing lead from soil and water and plentiful. Luckily, they also cost very little. Esra hopes to introduce this filtering option to his local community to create clean water for everyone.





Alex (18) lives in Athens, Greece. Fascinated by the intersection between robotics, software design, and the internet, he wanted to create the ultimate solution to solving health problems "in the cloud." In thinking about who needs health care the most, he realized that many people can't afford to visit a hospital or are physically too far away to access quality health care. Particularly for critical situations where a patient needs surgical care urgently, Alex wondered: wouldn't the world be a better place if a surgeon could treat their patient safely from thousands of miles away? To solve this, Alex built a robot and manually coded software that could control the robot remotely from any internet-enabled device. Through software and mechanical engineerings, Alex has created a platform that enables medical professionals to help patients wherever they are in the world, at any time.



İlayda (15) and Ezgi (15) live in İzmir, Turkey. The 7.1 earthquake that hit Turkey in 2011 claimed over 600 lives, and local scientists predict that the next decade could bring even more damage as tension continues to build along the North Anatolian Fault line. Given that many of Turkey's buildings are older, scientists have appealed to officials to help the country retrofit its buildings and train city workers to handle a potential earthquake disaster that could claim thousands of lives. Inspired to help, İlayda and Ezgi sought an affordable way to retrofit local buildings in their community with an easily available material: aluminium cans. The pair designed a solution that can be used to fill traditional concrete walls, increasing their ability to absorb impact damage from 32% to 61%. The students look forward to helping their community stay safe should an earthquake happen in the future.

Inspiring future makers and scientists with Science Journal

Posted by Chris DiBona, Director, Making & Science and Open Source

We believe that anyone can be a maker. Making doesn't just mean coding or working with electronics. It can be building or cooking, fixing a broken salad spinner or re-sewing a button on a teddy bear. Making is about looking at the world around you and creating - or, you guessed it, making - ways to improve it.

Science is also fundamentally about improving the world around you. It’s not just memorizing facts, wearing a lab coat or listening to a lecture. It’s observing the world around us to figure out how it works and how we can make things better through experimentation and discovery.

To bring out that inner scientist in all of us, today we’re introducing Science Journal: a digital science notebook that helps kids (and adults!) measure and explore the world around them. With this app, you can record data from sensors on your Android phone (or connected via an Arduino), take notes, observe, interpret and predict. Fundamentally, we think this application will help you learn how to think like a scientist!
Use Science Journal and the light sensor in your Android phone to collect data and run experiments
Since we know that hands-on projects increase engagement, cultivate curiosity and spark a lifelong interest in learning, we also teamed up with the Exploratorium - a leader in science education - to develop and assemble creative hands-on learning activity kits to accompany the Science Journal app. These Science Journal kits include inexpensive sensors, microcontrollers and craft supplies that bring science to life in new ways. The kits are available for purchase in the US or can even be assembled yourself.
Build and measure your own wind spinners using Science Journal activities and kits 

See science in action as Imagination Foundation chapters around the world put these activities to use
We’re excited to nurture an open ecosystem where people everywhere can use Science Journal to create their own activities, integrate their own sensors and even build kits of their own. To that end, we have released the microcontroller firmware code on GitHub and will be open sourcing the Android app later this summer. We’re eager to work with hardware vendors, science educators and the open source community to continue improving Science Journal.
Science Journal lets you visualize and graph data from your phone's accelerometer, light sensor, microphone and more. You can record data and set up trials, experiments and projects in the app.

But our goal to inspire budding scientists and makers goes beyond Science Journal. We’ve sent over 120,000 kids to their local science museum as part of Google Field Trip Days, encouraged and supported future changemakers through Google Science Fair and sponsored organizations such as NOVA, FIRST Robotics and Lick Observatory who are pushing science forward for all of us. And to help keep our young scientists safe, we’ve also distributed over 350,000 pairs of safety glasses at schools, makerspaces and Maker Faires around the world.

Many of the Google products used today by billions of people wouldn’t exist if not for the makers, scientists and engineers who wanted to create projects that could help improve our world. If you want to join in, come meet us today through Sunday at the Bay Area Maker Faire 2016, check out the Making & Science initiative and go subscribe to our YouTube channel. Let’s all make science, together.

Inspiring tomorrow’s coders at I/O Youth and beyond

Posted by Pavni Diwanji, VP of Engineering - Kids and Families

Google I/O is all about bringing creative coders together to imagine what’s next. And who better to build for the future than kids, the developers of tomorrow. That’s why we launched I/O Youth - inspiring kids to imagine, invent, and explore through the power of technology.

Today, we’ll celebrate the third anniversary of I/O Youth by hosting 120 students from Bay Area schools at Google I/O. Over the course of the day, kids and their teachers will be inspired by hands-on activities like designing a custom robotic monster and 3D car, bringing them to life using the power of code, directing a digital cartoon, and creating a personalized water bottle design through Made with Code.

Over the course of the day, kids will hear from speakers who use technology to do amazing things every day - like Ryan Germick, head of the Google Doodles team, who’ll talk about the beauty of art and technology coming together; Brent Bushnell, CEO of Two Bit Circus, who’ll take them on a virtual field trip to his workshop, and Anika Cheerla, 13-year old Google Science Fair finalist who built a way to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease, who’ll share how she discovered her love for science. They’ll also get to hear about how technology helps to bring some of their favorite things to life from a producer of Design Squad Global by PBS Kids and WGBH, a Nickelodeon creator, and a Pokémon game designer.

We’re also excited to announce our collaboration with Scratch, enabling developers to design creative coding and learning experiences for kids. Today we take the first step in this collaboration with the release of an early developer preview of Scratch Blocks code. We hope that developers will use Scratch Blocks to create consistent, high-quality programming experiences for kids everywhere.
At I/O Youth, students will get early access to a prototype built with Scratch Blocks
I/O Youth is just one of many ways we’re focused on helping young people to imagine, invent, and explore through the power of technology. Beyond today’s event, we also have year-round programs to help inspire and train our engineers of the future, including:



Google Science Fair - an international competition inspiring teenagers from all over the globe to ask questions about their world and solve them with science. The deadline to submit projects for this year’s competition is today, so stay tuned to see who will win!






Made with Code - our initiative to inspire millions of girls to learn code, and see coding as a means to pursue their dream careers.


CS First - increasing elementary and middle school students’ access and exposure to Computer Science with a focus on girls and underrepresented minorities.




If you’re not joining us at Shoreline Amphitheater for I/O Youth today, follow along on Twitter at #io16 and #ioyouth as we share updates along the way. Here's to celebrating and inspiring our future engineers today, and every day.

Google Science Fair and Made with Code teens head to the White House

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Product Marketing Manager, Education Team

This year’s White House Science Fair is a special one for us, not just because it marks the last fair for the administration that made history by first introducing the event six years ago, but also because some of our Google Science Fair and Made with Code teens get the chance to be a part of this history.

This will mark the fifth year that a few of the Google Science Fair winners — this year Olivia Hallisey, Anurudh Ganesan and Deepika Kurup — will have the chance to exhibit their projects, and the first time a group of Made with Code teen programmers dubbed “Team Alpha Wolf” — Siobhan Garry, Mona Fariborzi, Lauren Mori, Bansi Parekh and McKenna Stamp — will get to showcase their creativity and passion to impact change on LGBTQIA+ issues. We are so proud of these students who are being recognized as America’s most innovative STEM students.

Here’s a little more about what they’re sharing at the White House:

Olivia Hallisey, 17, Greenwich, Connecticut - Google Science Fair 2015 Grand Prize Winner 
Olivia was concerned about the dangers of the Ebola epidemic spreading through Africa, in regions where many did not have access to care. This worry, coupled with her curiosity about silk storage and whether Ebola antibodies could travel longer without refrigeration as a result of silk’s stabilizing properties, led her to develop the Ebola Assay — a temperature-independent, rapid, portable and inexpensive diagnostic test for the detection of the Ebola virus. The card can potentially save thousands of lives.

Deepika Kurup, 18, Nashua, New Hampshire - 2015 Google Science Fair National Geographic Explorer Award Winner 
During summer trips to India with her family, Deepika felt troubled by the sight of children drinking unclean water. She discovered that according to the World Health Organization, the world is in the midst of a global water crisis that has resulted in one-ninth of the global population without access to clean water. Her solution — a solar-powered technology that uses silver and other materials to rapidly remove bacteria from water — can potentially provide cleaner drinking water to people around the world.

Anurudh Ganesan, 16, Clarksburg, Maryland - 2015 Google Science Fair LEGO Education Builder Award Winner 

As an infant, Anurudh and his grandparents had to walk 10 miles to a remote clinic in India so that he could receive critical vaccinations. Upon their arrival, his grandparents learned that high temperatures and lack of refrigeration made the vaccines they sought ineffective. This personal experience and his discovery that according to UNICEF, 1.5 million children die every year as a result of lack of access to safe and effective vaccines, inspired Anurudh to search for better methods of refrigerations for vaccines. He invented the VAXXWAGON, which can effectively transport vaccines in the last leg of distribution without the use of ice (he learned that ice packs used to transport vaccines can freeze them, diminishing their efficacy) and electricity. It has the potential to save thousands of lives worldwide.

Team Alpha Wolf: Siobhan Garry, 17, Mona Fariborzi, 17, Lauren Mori, 17, Bansi Parekh, 17, and McKenna Stamp, 18, San Diego, CA - Made with Code Newest Mentors


Siobhan, Mona, Lauren, Bansi and McKenna created Spectrum, an Android app that aims to provide a resource network for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially teens looking for a safe support system.

Spectrum addresses the need among teens for a positive and welcoming place to turn to as they navigate gender identity, sexual orientation and romantic orientation. In 2016, the Team Alpha Wolf teens were named mentors of Google’s Made with Code movement — an initiative that inspires girls to try code and to see it as a means to pursue their dream careers and the causes they’re passionate about.

Here are a few moments we’ve captured from this great day:
Olivia Hallisey, 17, exhibiting her Ebola Assay, a temperature-independent, rapid, portable and inexpensive diagnostic test for the detection of the Ebola virus

Deepika Kurup, 18, exhibiting her silver doped photocatalytic pervious composites, water filter that uses sunlight to remove contaminants in water

Anurudh Ganesan, 16 exhibiting his VAXXWAGON invention which transports in the last leg of distribution



Team Alpha Wolf: Siobhan Garry, 17, Mona Fariborzi, 17, Lauren Mori, 17, Bansi Parekh, 17, and McKenna Stamp, 18, exhibiting Spectrum, an Android app that aims to provide a resource network for the LGBTQIA+ community




Stay tuned for more action at this sixth and final White House Science Fair under President Obama’s administration by keeping up with us on Twitter using #whsciencefair and #googlesciencefair and on our Google+ page. To all of you budding scientists, explorers, engineers, mathematicians and innovators, we’re now accepting applications for Google Science Fair 2016. And don’t forget to check out how you can get involved in Made with Code to inspire more girls to code.

SXSWedu Speakers: How mentorship inspires students to make a global impact

Posted by Melissa Horwitz, Google for Education Team

Editor's note: If you’re in the Austin area today for SXSWedu, come visit the Google Fiber Space (201 Colorado Street) to attend a range of sessions on innovation in the classroom throughout the day. See the full schedule of sessions at the Google Fiber Space. Can't make it? Don't fret, all presentations will be added to the schedule after the event.

What’s the secret to inspiring the next generation of innovators? Today SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, we’ll hear thoughts about this topic from a host of speakers, including Monica Martinez, regional director at EdTechTeam, and a panel of Google Science Fair student winners.

While inspiration comes in many forms, it’s clear that technology, along with support from teachers, parents and advisors, is key to motivating students to make a difference in their communities and beyond. Here’s an overview of what these inspiring speakers will be sharing.

Empowering a culture of technology and mentorship
“Everything I’ve done in my career involves using technology to become more efficient,” says Monica Martinez. “I want to inspire educators and teachers to do the same, to solve problems and create workflows that would otherwise be cumbersome.” As regional director at EdTechTeam, her goal is to help educators embrace tools, such as Google Apps for Education, to better manage their work.

Martinez has been passionate about technology since childhood, when she started using her uncle’s computer for school projects and to teach herself how design. She built a career in design and educational technology — the two topics that have inspired her SXSWedu session about creating the ultimate workflow for educators with Google Apps.

“Teachers often are concerned that they don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done,” Martinez says. This problem is compounded when teachers feel ill-equipped to use new technology. Martinez leads workshops to show teachers how easy-to-use technology can help with their daily tasks.

Beyond the efficiency benefits, technology helps to create a culture of empowerment. When educators model new technology, they can inspire students to do more with the tools at their disposal.

“Telling students to think critically, experiment with new things and collaborate is fine, but if they don’t see their teachers, mentors and advisors doing the same, the message isn’t as strong and sometimes lost,” says Martinez.
Topic: Efficient workflows with Google Apps
Presenter: Monica Martinez, Regional Director, EdTechTeam
When: Tuesday, March 8th, 2016, 12:30 - 1:00 pm
Inspiring the next generation of creators
Kavita, Elif, Naomi and Deepika are young inventors who will be speaking about how to motivate future innovators, explorers and pioneers. Aside from being Google Science Fair finalists and winners, these four young people have something else in common: supportive and dedicated mentors.

“Many teenagers are sitting at home all over the world with big ideas and questions, but they don’t know how to get started making a difference. Teachers, parents and mentors in their communities can play a powerful role by supporting these students,” explains Andrea Cohan, program lead for the Google Science Fair.

Students that participate in the Google Science Fair are able to explore and interact with science, engineering and their communities — global and local — in a way that enriches the typical classroom experience.

From finding sustainable alternatives for manufacturing and water purification to improving air quality, the students on this panel have no shortage of world-changing ideas. For example, Elif, who is from Istanbul, Turkey, found a way to use banana peels to produce bio-plastic as a replacement for traditional petroleum-based plastic in her project, Going Bananas.

SXSWedu attendees are in a position to positively impact students’ lives. “You can help them find the resources they need to get started, discuss their ideas with them and simply be a supportive sounding board. Every student on this panel attributes part of their success to the mentors, like you, in their lives,” Cohan says.
Topic: #Howcanwe inspire the next generation of innovators, explorers and pioneers? Moderator: Stephan Turnipseed, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Destination Imagination
Panelists: Google Science Fair winners Kavita Selva, 2013 Google Science Fair finalist Elif Bilgin, 2013 Google Science Fair Science in Action winner Naomi Shah, 2011 Google Science Fair winner, ages 15-16 Deepika Kurup, 2015 Google Science Fair National Geographic Explorer Award winner
When: Tuesday, March 8th, 2016, 1:15 - 2:00 pm
To hear from these speakers and more, join us for these sessions at the Google Fiber Space. If you can’t make it in person, follow #GoogleEdu to stay up to date and check the event page where we'll post the presentations. We also encourage all students ages 13-18 (from anywhere in the world!) to participate in the 2016 Google Science Fair, which is open for submissions until May 17.

New templates in Google Docs: for a head start, at school and beyond

Posted by Brian LeVee, Product Manager

Writing a book report or creating a lesson plan from scratch is no easy task. Sometimes it’s even difficult to know where to start!

That’s why today, we’re introducing new templates in Docs, Sheets, and Slides, designed by experts like Reading Rainbow and Google Science Fair to make your schoolwork even better, easier.

Reading Rainbow, the third longest running children's TV series in US history and award-winning digital service, has been inspiring children to read for over 30 years. Reading Rainbow created a lesson plan and a book report template in Docs to help teachers and students get things done.

The Google Science Fair is an annual online science and engineering competition open to teens globally. In the competition, young scientists have tackled issues like world hunger, life-threatening diseases and the energy crisis. Use GSF’s science fair template in Slides for a head start on your next project—or for this year’s GSF.

So whether you’re working on your next project at home or on the bus ride home - get a head start with new templates in Docs, Sheets, and Slides - all available on the web, Android and iOS.