VOA标准英语2008年-Brainy Teens the World Over Descend on Atlanta

By Mike Cooper
atlanta
15 May 2008

Some of the world's most gifted teenagers are gathering¹ in Atlanta to participate in Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair. Their projects range from transmitting invisible data to extracting fuel from waste. Mike Cooper reports for VOA from the southeastern U.S. city of Atlanta.

Teenagers from around the world are presenting projects at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The 50-year-old is the world's largest pre-college international science fair.

Students compete for more than $4 million in scholarships, trips, science equipment and cash awards.

Many of the students have competed in local or regional science fairs, and their work is being reviewed by more than 1,000 judges who have a doctorate² degree or years of professional experience in nearly every scientific discipline.

Joel Knighton, from Coon Rapids, in the northern state of Minnesota, studied ways of embedding³ data in pictures to find which would be the least visible to the human eye.

He says his work could help provide secure data transmission through computers without anyone being aware the data are transmitted.

"As far as what they are looking for, they really look a lot more at the content of the project at this level. Once you have reached the point where your judges are really educated in the field, they will ask a lot of the harder questions."

While you would expect presentations to involve computer science, because the event is sponsored by Intel, the California-based manufacturer of computer chips, there are also presentations involving biology, earth science, energy, medicine, physics and astronomy. Forty-eight percent of the students competing are female.

Jennifer Vanderweele, from Portland, Oregon, studied ways to extract oil from algae⁴ grown in waste water to make biodiesel fuel for transportation. She had already experimented making fuel from waste vegetable oil from her school cafeteria.

"You need more than just the waste vegetable oil and currently a lot of the crops used are corn and soybean, oil from those, but those take a lot of space to grow and energy to grow and harvest. So algae seems like a better solution because it can grow in less space and take less energy," she said.

Michael Glawe of New Ulm, Minnesota, used an aquarium⁵ and handmade tools to simulate the effects of a tsunami⁶ generated by an earthquake. "I designed an earthquake model and I used it in a 7x3-foot (2x1-meter) tank and I was actually able to watch propagations and how waves actually move in wave physics. And I came up with a couple of theories as to how waves move," she said.

The executive director of the sponsoring Intel Foundation, Wendy Hawkins, says students from 51 countries are participating this year. She says India, China and western Europe are well-represented, but not all of the students have access to resources, money or equipment.

"It is often kids who are scrounging for parts and putting together things that truly are amazing - robotics and solving problems in terms of water quality, solving very real issues, health issues that affect the people that they live with in ways that are real and measurable with remarkably⁷ little resource," she said.

Many of the presentations have concrete applications. Yuan Ning, from Malaysia, was inspired to develop a computer-based system to help the deaf and mute people to communicate with others.

"I came across a scene when I saw a deaf-mute in the post office. He was trying to communicate with the officer there, using sign language. But the officer just could not get what he want[ed]," Yuan Ning said.

There are more than 1,200 projects being presented at this year's International Science and Engineering Fair. The researchers may only be teenagers, but almost 20 percent of them have applied⁸ for or received patents for their work.

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

3 embedding   

把…嵌入，埋入( embed的现在分词 )； 植入； 埋置； 包埋

参考例句：

• Data embedding in scrambled Digital video complete source code, has been tested. 数据嵌入在炒数字视频完整的源代码，已经过测试。
• Embedding large portions of C++ code in string literals is very awkward. 将大部分C++代码嵌入到字符串中是非常笨拙的。

4 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

5 aquarium   

n.水族馆，养鱼池，玻璃缸

参考例句：

• The first time I saw seals was in an aquarium.我第一次看见海豹是在水族馆里。
• I'm going to the aquarium with my parents this Sunday.这个星期天，我要和父母一起到水族馆去。

6 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

7 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。