Local science fair winners to compete at Intel Fair in San Jose

The top sweepstakes winners of the 14th annual Tri-Valley Science and Engineering Fair (TVSEF), sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, won't have far to travel to their next level of competition. The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) runs May 9-14, in San Jose, Calif.

At the TVSEF in Livermore held March 30-April 2, more than 305 local students in grades 7 through 12 from Danville, Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Sunol competed for cash and other prizes.

From that competition emerged the following senior sweepstakes winners who are eligible to compete in the Intel ISEF: Brian Cambra and Bryan Lent, 12th grade students from Livermore's Granada High School, who won in the team project category with their project, "Effects of Creatine Monohydrate on Mice" (see video ); Evan O'Dorney, an 11th grade student from San Ramon's Venture High School, who won with his project, "Continued Fraction Convergents and Linear Fractional Transformations"; Rahul Doraiswami, an 11th grade student from Pleasanton's Foothill High School who won for the project, "Cancer Diagnosis Using Metabolic Fingerprint Analysis"; and, Harikrishna Rallapalli, a 12th grade student from Pleasanton's Amador Valley High School, who won for his project, "Low-Cost Polarization Based GFP Viewer."  Rallapalli captured sweepstake slots in both 2008 and 2009.

"The students representing the TVSEF at the Intel ISEF will be well prepared for the competition," said Nadine Horner, TVSEF director. "LLNL scientists and engineers judge the students against a high standard. This aspect is unique to most regional science fairs held in the country and abroad."

The Intel ISEF brings together more than 1,400 students from more than 40 countries to compete for scholarships, tuition grants and internships in the fields of science and engineering. For more information about this year's Tri-Valley Science and Engineering Fair, go to the Tri Valley Science Fair Website.

For information about the Intel ISEF go to the ISEF Website.