Sixteen members of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter chose Nolan Kamitaki from Waiakea High School in Hilo, Hawaii, as the winner of the ASA Council of Chapters prize for the best use of statistics at the 2010 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). His project was titled “Gene Dosage and Expression in Human Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines.”

Second place was awarded to Vedant Kumar from duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, for “Accurate Prediction and Tracking of Lung Cancer.”

Akshay Nathan from Lynbrook High School in San Jose, California, won third place for “A Super-Encryption Standard for Large Data Using Elementary Chaotic Cellular Automata.”

The ISEF, held May 9–14 at the San Jose Convention Center, is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition and annually provides a forum for high-school students from more than 40 countries to showcase their independent research.

Each year, millions of students compete in local and school-sponsored science fairs. The winners of these go on to participate in ISEF-affiliated regional and state fairs, from which the best are chosen to attend the ISEF.

The ISEF unites top young scientific minds, showcasing their talent on an international stage, enabling their work to be judged by doctoral-level scientists, and providing them the opportunity to compete for nearly $4 million in prizes and scholarships. More than 1,600 projects were entered this year.

The ASA Council of Chapters annually offers a prize for the best use of statistics in a project. The project may be purely statistical, or it may involve the intelligent use of statistical analyses or techniques in a subject-matter project.

The prizes awarded to the first-, second-, and third-place winners were $1,000, $500, and $250, respectively, plus a subscription to CHANCE magazine. Seven honorable mention finishers received JMP Start Statistics: A Guide to Statistics and Data Analysis Using JMP, courtesy of SAS. Additionally, Chris Malone of Winona State University presented “The Importance of Statistics in Scientific Research” to teachers and students interested in statistics.

Next year’s ISEF will be held May 8–13 in Los Angeles, California, where the prizes for statistics will be judged by members of the Southern California Chapter.