Gaithersburg High School Student Awarded Top Honors at ScienceMONTGOMERY Science Fair
- Student: Austin Duff
- School: Gaithersburg High School
- Class/grade: 12th grade
- Award: Intel International Science & Engineering Award and other Community Awards
March 25, 2011 – Gaithersburg High School (GHS) is pleased to announce that 12th grader Austin Duff received top honors at the Montgomery County Science Fair, “ScienceMONTGOMERY” competition, that was held March 18 – 20 at the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Over 400 students from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and several private schools competed for an opportunity to share in over $40,000 in prizes and awards.
Austin, competing in the Engineering Category of the competition, received top honors and an all-expenses paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles May 8 – 14, 2011 as well as $250 for his project entitled “Investigation of Robotic Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making.” Austin also won the following Community Awards at the competition:
- 1st Place ScienceMONTGOMERY Engineering Category (sponsored by Northrop Grumman) - $175
- American Nuclear Society- 2nd place Certificate of Excellence and $50
- ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) - 2nd place Certificate of Excellence, $50 and an invitation to awards banquet
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - invitation to Awards Ceremony and tour of CIA Headquarters
- I-SWEEEP - (International Sustainable World (Engineering, Energy, Environment) Project Olympiad Outstanding Sustainability Award and invitation to compete in 2011 Olympiad
- Optical Society of America, National Capital Section/ IEEE Photonics Society – Senior Division certificate for achievement in Optics and Photonics Award
- U. S. Air Force - Senior Division, Certificate of Achievement, Computer backpack, and other gifts, for Excellence in Science and Engineering
- U.S. Army Research Office – For Scientific Excellence in the Senior Division, 1st place Certificate of Achievement, Messenger Bag, and Medallion
In addition to Austin’s awards, GHS 9th grader Mohamed Keita received a 3rd place Certificate of Recognition from the Health Physics Society for Outstanding Projects using or applying radiation or radioactive material.
