By Rebecca Shalomoff
Last weekend, they beat out five other team regional winners in Washington D.C., and were awarded $100,000 in scholarships. The girls qualified in the nationals by winning the northeast regional competition at MIT last month.
When Billet and Sosnowik, participated in both competitions, Siemens Westinghouse granted them special permission to present their project at times other than Saturday, so they would not be in violation of their religious practice.
The enormity of this win is incredible, said Helen Spirn, SKA principal. It shows Orthodox young women that they can accomplish in science while still holding onto their beliefs. It shows them that the sky's the limit.
In their project, A Viscometer for Ultra-thin Films, the two girls developed a method of measuring the consistency of ultra-thin lubricants. Their findings have many potential applications in the fields of micro-electronics and medical therapy, including the functioning of artificial joints for arthritis patients.
It has a lot of practical application, said Rebecca Isseroff, their SKA mentor and chemistry teacher.
To win their scholarship prize, which they will split, Billet and Sosnowik won top team honors at a regional meet Nov. 3-5 in Boston, then went on to win again in Washington.
One-fifth of the 253 semifinalists in the contest were from Long Island. The top individual prize of $100,000 went to a Grand Junction, Colo. student, Ryan Patterson, who designed a glove-like electronic tool that translates sign language into characters on a computer screen.
The Siemens Westinghouse National Science Competition, which is co-sponsored by the College Board and the Siemens Foundation, was established three years ago. The pre-collegiate science contest formerly known as Westinghouse, was bought out by Intel and Siemens several years ago. Only individual students can compete in the Intel Science Talent Search, while Siemens Westinghouse permits teams to enter.
The girls' work is the result of their summer research completed at the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces, SUNY, Stony Brook, under the direction of professor Miriam Rafailovich. They hope to publish their findings in a science journal and plan to continue their work next summer.
The 300-student Stella K. Abraham school, which combines academic and religious studies, set up its summer research program just two years ago.
Billet and Sosnowik, friends since the sixth grade, also edit the school yearbook together.
It's been incredible, Billet said of working with her close friend. I've seen more of her in the past three months than I've seen my family. We realized we can spend a lot of time together and stay good friends.
Shira, 17, is the daughter of Rabbi and Mrs. Heshie Billet of Woodmere. Dora is 16 and lives in Lawrence with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sosnowick.
Both girls plan to spend next year studying in Israel before returning to pursue their collegiate studies in America.
