Saratoga Students Visit Nation's Capital As Part of Intel Science Talent Search

Saratoga students Jack Takahashi and Kevin Garbe were among 40 finalists vying for the $100,000 top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search 2013 competition March 7 in Washington, D.C.

Although they didn't earn the top prize, they attended an all expense-paid trip and awards gala in Washington, D.C. March 7-13 joining three other Bay Area high school students who were among 40 finalists vying for the ultimate science award.

Palo Alto student Sahana Vasudevan, 16, who is homeschooled at Gnyanam Academy, took tenth place and received a $20,000 award for her math research that "proved a new, generalized way to minimize an important function of arithmetic," according to a statement released tonight by Intel.

The students were selected from a pool of 300 semifinalists for their scientific research in biochemistry, physics, math, engineering, medicine and health, among other topics.

Takahashi, a student at Lynbrook High School, researched: "Wnt Independent ß-catenin Activation is Associated With Increased Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation in Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension."

Garbe, 17, a student at Saratoga High School, researched geometrical objects called fractals that have applications ranging from cryptography to weather forecasting.

Fractals arise in a wide variety of contexts in mathematics, physics, and biology and have been applied in fields as diverse as cryptography, computer graphics and seismology, said Intel Science Talent Search spokeswoman Maria Culp.

He calculated the fractal dimension for polynomials of small degree over the two element field and proved upper bounds on the dimension in the general case, she said.

They each received at least $7,500.

—Bay City News contributed to this report