ATLANTA – Gray skies and drenching rain couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the world’s brightest young scientists who spent the day explaining their projects in a packed exhibit hall May 15 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
As parents, teachers, hordes of elementary school kids and other visitors strolled among the booths, the more than 1,500 high school students stood sentry, explaining their investigations of conundrums such as dark matter, antibiotic resistance and goldfish communication.
Many of the students, whose success at previous science fairs qualified them for the Atlanta fair, were tackling problems that vex society today, but that industry or government has done little to amend. Huzeifa Badshah and Steven Schroeder, students at NorthsideHealthCareersHigh School in San Antonio, focused on reducing lawn mower emissions, which contribute substantially to air pollution. By tinkering with octane levels, oil levels and back pressure, Badshah and Schroeder found they could make an average lawn mower much less wasteful.
“It’s about a 10 minute change — putting on a new muffler and lowering the oil level 5 centimeters,” Badshah said. Schroeder said that when they talked to some lawn mower manufacturers about the idea, the industry response was, “Why should we spend money on this? It isn’t regulated.”