Broadcom MASTERS®: 300 Student Engineers and Scientists Bring Their A-Game

It’s not often that we can talk about eco-friendly diapers, thermo-electric power or the DNA alphabet in a single blog…
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Broadcom MASTERS®: 300 Student Engineers and Scientists Bring Their A-Game

BroadcomBroadcom FoundationBroadcom MASTERSSTEMSTEM education

It’s not often that we can talk about eco-friendly diapers, thermo-electric power or the DNA alphabet in a single blog post. But those were among some of the impressive science fair project topics tackled by a group of young innovators who were nominated to participate in this year’s Broadcom MASTERS® competition.

Today, Broadcom Foundation announced the 300 semifinalists who will face-off this fall in the premier national science fair competition for middle school students.

Paula Golden, Executive Director of Broadcom Foundation and Director of Broadcom Community Affairs, applauded the efforts of the students whose achievements brought them to the next stage of the program.  In a statement, she said:

Through science fairs, every student has a unique opportunity to showcase his or her science or engineering project to discerning judges and experience the give-and-take of competition. These 300 students represent the finest competitors in the nation. All of us at Broadcom are thrilled to congratulate each semifinalist who has achieved so much to make it to the next round of the MASTERS.

View the list of 300 semifinalists and the official state-by-state breakdown here.

MASTERS semifinalists by the numbers:

  • 1,460 students were nominated, 300 chosen as semifinalists, 30 finalists to be announced Aug. 29
  • Semifinalists were selected by  a distinguished panel of scientists and engineers
  • Semifinalists hail from 290 middle schools in 38 states
  • Semifinalists represent 117 fairs across the United States and Puerto Rico
  • 54 of the semifinalists are from California, followed by Florida with 26, Texas with 23, Ohio with 17 and Oregon with 16

These young innovators tackled a wide range of impressive science fair project topics, which included:

  • The Eco-Friendly Diaper, Landfill Design: The Type of Cloth Versus the Rate of Decomposition
  • The Effect of Windmill Blade Pitch and Surface Area on Energy Production
  • A Robotic Simulated Lunar Terrain Transportation Challenge
  • Waste Heat Recovery using Thermo-electric Power
  • A Novel, Efficient Pattern Matching Algorithm for the DNA Alphabet

Semifinalists were nominated to compete by their regional and state science fairs earlier this year.  They took part in a rigorous online application where they were asked to examine the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) elements in their projects, write about their mentors and consider STEM careers they might pursue based on their interests.

Sponsored by Broadcom Foundation, the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) is a program of Society for Science & the Public (SSP). SSP has been the leader in science fair competition for more than seven decades.

Last year was the inaugural year for Broadcom MASTERS. In 2011, first place winner Daniel Feeny, 15, of Woodside, Calif., received $25,000 for his research on wave diversity in tidal pools.

Later this month, the field will be narrowed to 30 finalists who will win an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete for the top award of $25,000.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the Broadcom MASTERS winners October 2. Follow SSP and Broadcom on Twitter or visit the Broadcom MASTERS Facebook page.

Congratulations to the 300 Rising Stars!

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