<p>out of curiosity, did rsi take a bunch of those finalist spots? haha</p>
<p>I didn't get in. What other major science fairs are there this year besides ISEF and STS?</p>
<p>OK here's RSI stats on how well we did this year:
I'll just list the states where the winners were from (out of laziness)</p>
<p>3 Finalists (OR, WI, CA)
15 Semifinalists (CA, FL, KY, MA, NH, NC, OH, OK, PA, UT, VA, WA)</p>
<p>States with more than one person from RSI getting semifinalist: CA (3), NH (2). So yeah 36% of eligible RSI people (the 50 domestic students) were awarded something.</p>
<p>Made Regional Finalist! :)</p>
<p>semifinalist!</p>
<p>For the regionals judging process, do you know what type of questions are generally asked during the Q&A session?</p>
<p>This is my first science tournament ever, so I have no idea.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Siemens questions -- </p>
<p>Last year, fully half the Regional Finalist projects were bio/chem. There will be a panel of ~10 judges representing a variety of disciplines. Expect half to be bio/chem folks. You will need to be able to communicate your project to an audience of scientists who may not have a lot of knowledge in your field of study. Don't assume the panel will include a judge who specializes in your field. </p>
<p>After your presentation, you and the judges go to a conference room for a 10-15 minute (I forget precisely) Q&A session. Noone else is allowed in the proceedings. Expect to answer project-specific questions. Everyone wants to know how you came up with your topic, how you found a mentor, how long you've worked on it. </p>
<p>Regional finalists: SPEND TIME on your presentation and backboard materials. If you can practice it before your mentor, teachers or folks who don't know what you studied, that will be a good way to get feedback and see if you're communicating effectively. Be able to describe your project in a good sound bite. Think about how your project may have real world applicability. This is a real challenge for some theroetical projects! (and yes, there are a few out there.)</p>
<p>Come hungry to Regional Finals. They put out a never-ending spread! Siemens also loves having the parents there -- if your parents can attend, it is worth the trip.</p>
<p>The big difference between Siemens and Intel is that Siemens is focused solely on your project, through the backboard, presentation and private session with the judges. Intel evaluates your project, but focuses mainly on your potential as a scientist. There is no formal presentation of your project at Intel. </p>
<p>Last year, eight Siemens Regional Finalists made Intel finalist; nine Siemens SFs made Intel finalist. I believe there were four Rickoids at Intel finals.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me questions, here or via PM.</p>
<p>^Thanks Countingdown, that helped, as I initially thought they purposefully would try to ask you very complex questions that are not directly related to your topic.</p>
<p>Also, since the judges would already have heard your presentation in the oral presentation section, will they ask you questions based on what YOU said, or what exactly your REPORT said.</p>
<p>And, when you do the oral presentation, do you use slides (like powerpoint) or do you use your posterboard?</p>
<p>Thanks again</p>
<p>How much does being a Semi-finalist help you for the college apps?</p>
<p>S was asked about the papers he had read in the course of his research, where he thought his topic could go from his stopping point, what other questions he might be interested in researching, along with the other stuff I mentioned. He didn't give me a full reckoning. There were no judges in his topic area due to a last-minute cancellation, which he was unhappy about, as his topic was pretty esoteric, even for people in his field. (Same thing happened at Intel.)</p>
<p>You'll get a schedule and instructions from Siemens, but you set up your backboards Friday morning. There is a private viewing of the backboards by the judges at some point Friday afternoon, but you aren't there for that part. Lesson: your backboard needs to be technical, visually appealing, understandable to intelligent people with some science background, but not necessarily in your area, and self-explanatory. </p>
<p>There is a public viewing late Friday afternoon, where there will be profs, Siemens folks, college students, etc. who come and see your board and ask you questions. This is not an official part of the judging, but treat it like it is. You may get questions here that will help you refocus your oral presentation or help you with the judges' private session. </p>
<p>For the oral presentation Saturday, you will be in a different room with cameras and an audience. The judges are at a table in the front of the room. You have 12 minutes. This presentation is done with Power Point. You get a chance to run through it with the laser pointer and the tech gear the day before.</p>
<p>I cannot stress enough that you need to spend serious time between now and the competition preparing the backboard and Power Point. If you can practice your presentation in front of people, so much the better. S was fortunate -- his mentor set up a panel of profs at the university for one run-through, and his teacher at school had him present in front of some of the other teachers and a research class. Both experiences gave him a lot of good feedback about how to tailor his explanations and present material visually. Note: DO NOT include your prof's name/school on the backboard/Power Point.</p>
<p>There is a link on the Siemens website with backboards from previous competitions. </p>
<p>Caveat: Realize this was S's experience at one of the RF locations. Things may vary at other locations or procedures may be different this year. </p>
<p>Gigahertz -- The kids who get to Siemens SF, Intel, RSI, TASP, USA-O, etc. tend to have many other attractive qualities that appeal to colleges, so it's hard to quantify what becomes the decisive tipping point. S was accepted EA to two of his top three choices (both extremely selective), but rejected at schools RD where his credentials (and by then, additional awards) should have made him a very attractive candidate. Ultimately, we concluded that S was accepted at precisely the schools that a) realized how well he would fit into their programs, philosophy, etc. and b) he really wanted. He has absolutely no regrets or remorse at not being accepted at the others.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask more questions!</p>
<p>lol someone at my school is a semifinalist</p>
<p>Siemens Completion is obviously way more biased than Intel. Look at how many NY kids on the list. The judges are all from that region, the territorial mentality reflected in the results. Do you really believe that the heartland kids are less intelligent than NYs?
Whether the answer is TRUE or FALSE, Siemens competition has decided for you. Well, at least Middle America still can vote, and not have our countrys fate decided by coastal elitists.</p>
<p>Is that a joke? Siemens paper are selected without any prior knowledge of the author's location, gender, mentor, etc.</p>
<p>It just so happens that some prestigious schools require all students to do a science research project, so those schools will have much stronger showings.</p>
<p>And it's not a coincidence because a lot of these kids have parents who are scientists and engineers themselves with PhD's, and many technology/research firms are located on US coasts, not in the midwest.</p>
<p>I can't believe I just created an account to write that</p>
<p>highseas,
First, a disclaimer: I am not from NY. I am not a scientist. Neither is my husband. We didn't have any friends to call to find my S a mentor. S looked at the college departments in the area he was interested in pursuing and found a couple of profs who did that kind of research. He sent out a couple of emails, interviewed, made his choice and went to work. S attended a public school with an excellent science/math program where research is expected.</p>
<p>Siemens sends out the papers to experts for a BLIND READ. This means the evaluators don't know who the student is, his/her high school, where the student conducted research, or who mentored the project. Papers are ranked within each region, and from there SFs and RFs are selected. (Intel also does a blind read process.)</p>
<p>NY is one of the six geographic regions represented at Siemens. It is its own region because there are a number of NY high schools that offer research programs through the high schools and they represent about 1/6 of the total number of applications. Each region pulls in about the same number of applications. Siemens told us they did this because NY students were crowding out other east coast applicants and they felt that this was keeping some very talented students from advancing. </p>
<p>The top three at Intel in 2008 were from NC, SC and OR. (None of the top 40 finalists were from California.) National Finalists for individual projects at Siemens for 2008 were from TX (2), KS, NY, PA, VA. For team projects, the teams represented TX, CA, MI, NY, PA and NC. This info was publicly and readily available. Next time, check your facts.</p>
<p>Also note that the SF and RF lists include each SF/RF's name. Team projects are not listed together as one group of names, so what may seem like a lot of people from one state may actually be two or three group projects. In New York's case, the NY names are the SFs/RFs for an entire region. Intel is individual projects only. Siemens has both an individual and team competition. </p>
<p>Judges are selected from the schools/geographic region with which Siemens has an ongoing supporting relationship for the competition (Last year, these were Notre Dame, CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech and Caltech). At my son's regional competition, there were six college/universities/agencies represented among the ten judges. Noone from NY.</p>
<p>Save your politics for another thread.</p>
<p>CountingDown,</p>
<p>First, thank you very much for the info! It really helps. </p>
<p>Second, echo your answer to Highseas. The papers were blind read, no any information that can disclose a student's identity is allowed.</p>
<p>Are u saying there are no intellectuals or scientists left in mid America? There are prestigious schools in heartland and there are tons of kids having PHd parents in middle America. Are u so na</p>
<p>Forgot to tell: a finalist not from NY or nearby.</p>
<p>highsea - Siemens is looking for a good project, no human factor while Intel is looking for a good scientist and needs essay, info on GPA, etc. Also, Siemens does not allow using animals, but Intel does. There are many differences. Does it make sense to you? If you are interested in this topic for you or your children, please do more research on it.</p>
<p>Siemens deadline is Oct 1 and result comes out on Oct 24. There are roughly 14 working days (deduct from processing days) to have the judges reading the papers. Do you really believe the experts can read the papers in 14 days? If they do, then these are not the experts in their fields. Because all experts are busy, experts also review papers for journals. Any papers submit to scientific Journals take several months to get evaluated, not like Siemens, 14 days. And Siemens has over 1600 submissions. </p>
<p>As for your comment “Siemens is looking for a good project”, no, Siemens is looking for titles they favor (they can’t possibly read all projects in depth)</p>
<p>When a process specifically puts emphasis on “blind read” and etc, then you know it must have had issues with fairness. And this issue is still lingering ….</p>
<p>Siemens reads abstracts first, so it is exteremly important to have a good abstract, just like any other paper reviews.</p>