By Andrew Coen
The competition, which featured 14 finalists from Long Island, all of whom will receive $1,000 college scholarships, promotes excellence by encouraging students to undertake research projects in science, mathematics, engineering and technology or combinations of these disciplines. With its high academic standards, rigorous judging process and emphasis on authentic scientific research, it has quickly become one of the leading science and mathematics research-based competitions for high school students in the U.S.
Katz, who worked on his project with Vikas Murali from Staples High School in Connecticut, titled it "Colloidal Platinum Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Structure, and Properties." Katz and his partner engineered these small particles and studied their properties as they applied to semiconductivity, magnetometry, biotoxicity and hydrogen affinity. The research involved the synthesis of colloidal platinum nanoparticles through four novel chemical methods and the investigation of their properties.
"Our time-efficient and cost-effective methods were successful in synthesizing spherical platinum nanoparticles," said Katz. "Practical applications of our results are versatile, and include the use of platinum nanoparticles in semiconductive chips, storage of hydrogen for use in fuel cells and the disruption of cancerous cell growth."
Katz also said that "with the semiconductor industry seeking to produce smaller chips with increased performance, these nanoparticles can be used to provide the useful pathways necessary for electron flow through the chips' circuits."
Katz will now present his project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Nov. 11 and 12, with the chance to obtain between $10,000 and $100,000 in scholarship money before the national finalists are announced Dec. 1.
Jacob Loewenstein, a junior at HAFTR, was recognized as a semifinalist in the Siemens Westinghouse competition for a project he conducted with Daniel Hefter, a senior at the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys. Loewenstein and Hefter researched the engineering of practical alternatives to halogenated fire retardants, and assessed the biological effects of this process on cells, all the while maintaining cost effectiveness for industrial and commercial applications.
"We're very pleased and very excited," said HAFTR High School principal Stanley Blumenstein of the Siemens honorees from his school. "The students here are as good as any in the country."
When Blumenstein arrived at the Cedarhurst yeshiva five years ago from Bronx Science High School, he initiated a ninth-grade science institute in which students have the opportunity to work on small projects each year, with seminars to try and bring the science program to the next level. "This is a culmination of a science program that we try to build at HAFTR starting in the ninth grade," he said.
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