Siemens Competition

The Siemens Competition was a science competition for US high school students funded by the Siemens Foundation, which was administered by the College Board from 1999-2013 and by Discovery Education from 2014–2017.[1] The Siemens Foundation released a statement on February 1, 2018 stating that the 2017 iteration of the competition was the final one.[2]

History

Siemens purchased Westinghouse Electric Corporation's power generation unit in 1997, but sponsorship of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (now the Regeneron Science Talent Search) was not part of the deal. When Siemens lost the bidding for the competition to Intel, Siemens decided to create the Siemens Foundation to continue the tradition using the well-known Westinghouse name, calling the new competition the Siemens Westinghouse Competition (SWC) and, later, the Siemens Competition. The first awards were given in 1999.[3]

The competition had the same goals as the old Westinghouse Competition, but with several added dimensions, most notably awards for team projects and regional awards. The regional finals were held in cooperation with six partner universities: MIT, Georgia Tech, Caltech, University of Texas at Austin, University of Notre Dame, and Carnegie Mellon.[4]

2007 was the first year that women won the top prizes in both the individual and team competitions at Siemens.

Selection process

Each year, research reports submitted before a late-September to early-October deadline were subjected to a blind reading. 300 outstanding research reports, from more than 1600 entries, were selected as semifinalists. All semifinalists received a special recognition package, with their names announced in a full page USA Today advertisement.[7]

From the pool of semifinalists, 30 individuals and 30 teams (2–3 students) were selected as Regional Finalists and invited to compete during the month of November at one of the six partner universities (Caltech, UT Austin, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Ga. Tech). In addition to project content, judging was also based on the oral presentation, poster display, cited references, and the question and answer session. All regional finalists received $1,000 scholarships and bronze medals. One individual and one team from each region advanced to the National Finals. These Regional winners received $3,000 (individual) or $6,000 (total for teams) scholarships, and silver medals.

The National Finalists (6 individual and 6 team projects) received an all-expense-paid trip during the first weekend of December to Washington, D.C. Winners of the Nationals received scholarships ranging from $10,000 to the coveted $100,000 grand prize for the top individual and top team.[8]

Winners

Below is a list of the winners for each year of the Siemens Competition.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

External links

• Siemens Foundation Website