02/15/2017
The 78th Pittsburgh Regional Science & Engineering Fair (PRSEF) will be held on March 31 for its open competition of STEM research projects at Heinz Field, followed by the awards ceremony on April 1. This competition is open to all students in grades 6-12 from 21 counties in Western Pennsylvania and Garrett County in Maryland.
It is always exciting for being a judge for this event, especially IUP College of Natural Sciences and Math offers eight scholarships to the high school juniors or seniors who participant the Fair if they will enroll full-time in IUP as a Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geoscience, Mathematics, Physics or Psychology major. The scholarship will be valued at $40,000 ($10,000 per academic year for four consecutive years if a 3.25 GPA or above is maintained).
My another connection is some high school students who completed the projects in my labs got awarded. One particular project was a fiber-optic intra-oral pressure sensor. The samples tested included some students in the lab, my wife and I. Whenever a project I mentored voluntarily was presented at the Fair, the downside is I had to remove myself as the judge.
In the past, I have been trying to push more local schools to register for the event. Really hope some projects presented this year are coming from these local schools our outreach team has visited.
