Hi guys My 2 cents...from first person experience ;-) (although this doesn't have much to do with frequency standard-related science fair projects...)
I am actually a high school junior in one of Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas's, suburbs, and I have been competing in ISEF science fairs for the last 3 years. >From my experience, the engineering judges look for projects that are novel and can justify why this new method is better than mainstream methods. Besides that, it is almost like a "marketing fair" since the presentation style also plays a huge role. In my opinion, high school ISEF science fair these days is not about "hey look at what I made", but its more like "how can it be done better and why should it replace mainstream technology". My project last year was essentially building a general purpose compact X-band radar system capable of distance and speed measurements. My major application was its use as "no-physical-contact biomedical instruments". I got 2nd place at regionals and didnt advance any farther than state. In retrospect, I believe my weaknesses back then were because radars are nothing new; I just presented a new application and I feel like I could've presented my project better towards the judges. I believe the live demo of a part of the radar, showing how professionally made it was (custom PCBs, etc), and the detailed documentation binder were a huge plus to my project. This year, I'm working on making a monolithic CMOS THz imaging array with built-in signal processing integrated circuit. (Just in case you're wondering, my I'm employeed at the TxACE center at UTD as a intern). My job is to basically design on the transistor level and integrate the signal processing circuit into the CMOS THz imaging array. At the end, I plan to use this project and compete in STS, Siemens, and ISEF. Unlike my last year's project, monolithic THz imaging arrays with on-chip signal processing is something relatively new. Why is a teenager (me) doing on this list? Because I have a passion for electronics, especially analog and RF ever since when I was very young. I love what I'm doing and I dont plan on stopping. Ok I'll stop rambling now...sorry for the long email guys... Ray Xu KF5LJO On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 8:03 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.ch...@gmail.com>wrote: > The number one TN science fair project would have to be measuring the > speed of light using some simple, inexpensive method such as > reflecting sunlight from rotating mirrors > > On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 5:44 PM, Jim Lux <jim...@earthlink.net> wrote: > > While delayed, I would think that the signal freqs would still need to > be > > maintained... hmmm, maybe not... interesting science project... > anyone? > > anyone? ;-) > > > > Jerry > > > > ---- > > > > > > I'm waiting to see a good time-nuts project at the science fair. (at any > > level up to ISEF) > > > > There's a lot of good ones out there (perhaps not on the scale of tvb's > > experimental demonstration of gravitational effects on atomic clocks) > that > > would lend themselves to execution by everyone from 6th to 12th grade. > > Clearly, since people do spend their entire professional life doing this > > and write dissertations on it, it can be up to ISEF or Siemens Talent > Search > > standards. > > > > Maybe we could come up with a suggested list and start shopping it > around. > > > > Jim > > > > _______________________________________________ > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > > To unsubscribe, go to > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > > and follow the instructions there. > > > > -- > > Chris Albertson > Redondo Beach, California > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- __________ 73, Ray Xu KF5LJO _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.