About 1,700 high school students from around the world will be in Pittsburgh starting Sunday for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest pre-college science competition in the world.
Twenty percent of the competitors hold patents or have published papers — this fair features high-level science.
“Two years ago we had a young man who created a test for pancreatic cancer and that test is proceeding now toward clinical trials, and he’s a senior in high school,” said Chuck Vukotich, chair of judging for ISEF.
There are dozens of awards and scholarships totaling more than $4 million. But the main benefit of the event, said Vukotich, is it showcases science in society. He said the hundreds of students participating in ISEF is just the tip of an iceberg.
“We have hundreds of thousands of students who are doing science projects, who are learning science, who are getting interested in science,” he said. “This forms the basis of our workforce for the future. These are the kids, not just the kids who are here, but all the kids who are involved all around the world are the kids who are going to find the breakthroughs and make the world a better place.”
ISEF is held each year in one of three cities: Los Angeles, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. Vukotich said the Steel City beat out 20 others to become one of the sites, thanks to partnerships between the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, the Carnegie Science Center and VisitPITTSBURGH.
“We have a tremendous network here, companies PPG, Westinghouse, Alcoa, all these companies, all of these organizations come together to help make this a reality,” said Vukotich.
The event was last held in Pittsburgh in 2012 and will be here again in 2018. This year’s starts Sunday May 10 and runs through Friday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Competition day is Wednesday when some 1,000 judges will look at projects and talk with students. Thursday is “public day” in which anyone can go see the projects. Vukotich said about 4,000 school children are slated to attend that day, and overall there could be as many as 12,000 people on public day.
