Hiller and Feldman Win Manalapan High School Third Place at the Marie Curie Science Fair

Craig Hiller and Andrew Feldman, juniors at Manalapan High School, have recently won an astonishing number of Computer Science and Engineering awards, as well as approximately $30,000 in scholarship money, according to a Freehold Regional High School District press release. 

Hiller and Feldman placed Manalapan High School in third place among roughly 300 schools competing in the Marie Curie Science Fair, a part of the Delaware Valley Science Fairs, and one of the largest science fairs in the region. 

The Marie Curie Science Fair is comprised of top 11th grade students from Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Southern New Jersey; 135 students participated. 

“The Delaware Valley Science Fairs are the second level of competition for both Hiller and Feldman. The first level was the Jersey Shore Science Fair held on March 19 at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. There, 659 students from 39 schools competed. Both Hiller and Feldman won second place in their categories,” the press release said.

Hiller created a project about the automatic calculation of the speed of traffic on a road through the implementation of computer vision algorithms on images retrieved from traffic cameras. The project, entitled A Computer Vision Based Approach to Traffic Flow Analysis, won first place in the Computer Science category, the Intel Excellence in Computer Science Award, the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia Special Award, an honorable mention from the American Society of Highway Engineers, and an award from the Yale Science and Engineering Association. 

Hiller’s project also got him an invitation to compete and participate in NanoDay@Penn 2011.  In terms of financial success, Hiller won one year full tuition to Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, a total of $19,500, as well as a $10,000 scholarship which is renuwable for four years to the University of the Sciences, and a partial scholarship to Drexel University, according to the press release.  

Feldman concentrated on using a variety of microphones as a tool for imaging sound sources in the environment. His project, entitled Acoustic Imaging Using Optimized Beamforming Techniques, won first place in the Engineering category. Feldman’s project also won him the IEEE Special Award, awards from the Yale Science and Engineering Association, the NANO/BIO Interface Center, the National Defense Industrial Association, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the United States Navy/United States Marine Corps. Feldman was also presented with a partial scholarship from Kean University and a $10,000 scholarship to the University of the Sciences, the press release noted. 

Feldman won more awards than any other student who competed at the fair; out of 282 Special Awards, Feldman won ten. Hiller was awarded the second highest number of Special Awards, receiving eight.  

The Silver Medal of the Marie Curie Science Fair was awarded to Feldman’s project. “Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners receive an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) against students from the United States and 65 other countries. They also receive a five-year full tuition scholarship toward a Bachelor of Science degree at Drexel University,” the press release said.

Manalapan High School came in third out of approximately 300 schools; the placement was calculated by the number of special awards given to each school.