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Three Yorktown Students Recognized As Intel Semifinalists

YORKTOWN, N.Y. -- Three Yorktown High School science research students have been selected as National Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists. 

Three Yorktown High School science research students, Andrew Levin, Cayla Hamann, and Andrew Amini, have been selected as National Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists.

Three Yorktown High School science research students, Andrew Levin, Cayla Hamann, and Andrew Amini, have been selected as National Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The three 17-year-old students, Andrew Levin, Cayla Hamann, and Andrew Amini, entered research papers, which was a culmination of their science research projects they carried out during the last three years. 

The semifinalists were selected from more than 1,750 entrants from 512 high schools in 43 states, including, Puerto Rico and six overseas high schools. Twenty-seven of the semifinalists were from the lower Hudson Valley.

“We have 19 seniors that are immensely talented students all doing graduate level research in high school. We are thrilled that three have been recognized on a national level and we wish them well as they move into the next stage in the Intel award process,” said teacher Michael Blueglass, who oversees the Yorktown Science Research program with colleagues Dominic Guazzo and Rachel Koenigstein. 

Andrew Levin designed a novel mechanism for solar tracking, which uses no electricity to operate. It was found that the tracker was successfully able to rotate towards a light source.

Cayla Hamann researched a type of thin-film solar cell called Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), which currently exhibits low inefficiencies but is made out of abundant and inexpensive materials, making it a viable and competitive alternative source of energy.

Andrew Amini conducted research involving developing a machine learning algorithms to detect predict and monitor epilepsy seizures. He was able to develop an algorithm with high accuracy and a lead time of roughly two minutes before a seizure, which would let epilepsy patients respond to their seizures before they even happen.

Forty of the 300 national semi-finalists will be named finalists on Jan. 20 and receive a trip to Washington, DC, March 10-16, to compete for more than $1 million in awards. Each semifinalist receives a $1,000 award from the Intel Foundation with an additional $1,000 going to his or her high school.

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