Sifting through his e-mails to check the latest updates about college acceptances, scholarships and news about his water filtration project, senior Thabit Pulak noticed an unexpected message from Intel notifying him that had been selected as a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition.
“I was one of three students picked from Texas,” Pulak said. “More than half the students came from California and New York. I was truly stunned. I had no idea that I would be selected to be a semifinalist let alone a finalist.”
Regarded as a highly selective and competitive pre-college science competition, the Intel Science Talent Search recognizes and rewards 300 student-semifinalists each year. Forty finalists are then selected for a week-long event where students display their research at the National Geographic Society for judging and meeting with national leaders. The finalists get to compete for $630,000 in awards, and the first-place winner receives $100,000 from the Intel Foundation.
“We celebrate these 40 students because their contributions to the world of science will help solve some of our most pressing challenges,” Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation, said in a press release.
The application for the Intel Science Talent Search Competition evaluates the quality of the scientific work done in the last three years and its potential impact on society. The main part of the application is a 20-page research report. Applicants also send grades, teacher recommendations, test scores and course schedules for a holistic evaluation.
“The application process bears resemblance to the college application process, except it’s much more difficult,” Pulak said.
Pulak will also plans to continue working on his project when he goes off to college next year.
“My next goal would be to further test my work in the real world, and ultimately bring a proposal to governments like those of Bangladesh to be able to distribute these arsenic water filters on a large scale,” Pulak said.
As a finalist, Pulak will receive an $8,500 award, fly to Washington D.C., and meet President Obama.
“I felt that there were so many more deserving students out there, but I am truly grateful for the opportunities that come with being selected as a finalist,“ Pulak said.
Pulak participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair as a sophomore and a junior, and ranked 3rd and 2nd respectively with both his Arsenic Water Filter and Detector. In the Intel Science Talent Search Competition, which only considers high school seniors, Pulak competes to have all of his accomplishments recognized.
“Participating in these various international science fairs has really widened my perspective on the world,” Pulak said. “There are literally freshmen and sophomores in high school working on breakthrough science projects pertaining to complex topics like diagnosing and fighting cancer. I was able to surround myself with people who made me realize just how little I knew. It’s a humbling experience, as you truly realize the scope of what things there are to explore out there, and how little we humans have come to understand it.”