Schools

2 Syosset Students Named Intel Semifinalists

Projects involved vision, tissue research.

Two Syosset High School students were named semifinalists Wednesday in the Intel Science Talent Search.

Michelle Jiang Long and Jared Brandon Weiss, both 17, were among 300 semifinalists chosen from more than 1,700 projects submitted for review in the prestigious competition.

Michelle Long conducted her research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in The Weiss Laboratory for Synthetic Biology. She constructed and utilized DNA circuits that dictate and regulate genetic expression in order to study the formation of tissues outside of the body. The goal of the study was to create self-assembling micro-tissues in order to control cell-cell attachments, the first step of tissue engineering to reflect realistic cell-patterning.

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Jared Weiss studied at Stony Brook University, at the Simons Summer Research Program under the mentorship of Dimitris Samaras, Ph.D., researching the application of human gaze in computer vision. The aim of his research was to understand how humans view images, and to develop an algorithm that enables automatic image annotation with near human vision accuracy.  The algorithm was formulated to more accurately assess the validity of proposed detections, which enables the automatic annotation of large sets of images with minimal human input.

  “The entire school district is very proud of all of their efforts both inside and outside of the classroom and we wish them continued success in their futures,”  said Dr. Giovanni Durante, the principal of Syosset High School.

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Each semifinalist receives a $1,000 award from the Intel Foundation with an additional $1,000 going to his or her school, resulting in $600,000 in total semifinalist awards.

On Jan. 23, 40 of the 300 semifinalists will be named as finalists. They will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. from March 7-13.

There, they will compete for $630,000 in awards provided by the Intel Foundation. Each finalist receives at least $7,500. Winners will be selected based on rigorous judging sessions and announced at a black-tie gala awards ceremony at the National Building Museum on March 12.

The top award is $100,000; the remaining top 10 winners will receive awards totaling $305,000.


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