Edmund Optics (Barrington, NJ) has named the 45 finalists for its 2015 Educational Award, selected from over 850 applications in 23 countries. The final Educational Award recipients will be announced on October 14, 2015.
The awards consist of Edmund Optics products valued at over $80,000. Each region--the Americas, Europe, and Asia--will be granted a Gold ($10,000 in products); a Silver ($7,500 in products); and a Bronze ($5,000 in products) Award. Edmund Optics will also present 36 matching product awards in the amount of $500 each to 12 recipients in each of the three regions. Nine global student winners will also be selected to receive prizes such as tablets, digital cameras, and activity trackers. All finalists will be eligible for the Norman Edmund Inspiration Award--an additional $5,000 in products being announced on November 11, 2015, to the program that best embodies the legacy of Edmund Optics' founder, Norman Edmund, for inspiring others to become interested in science and engineering.
The 45 research finalists and their teams submitted applications ranging from creating a vision system for the early detection of forest fires and the advancement of optical techniques to investigate alternative energy sources to discovering new non-invasive methods for pneumothorax diagnosis in premature babies and the development of a smartphone spectrometer for real-time environmental monitoring or health diagnostics such as Ebola detection.
Here are the finalists representing the Americas, Asia, and Europe:
Americas
Duke University, USA – Xiaofeng (Steve) Zhang
Johns Hopkins University, USA – Andrew Li
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA – Dr. Bevin Lin
Oklahoma State University, USA – Daqing Piao
Rutgers University, USA – Ashley Pennington
Schepens Eye Research Institute, USA – Michael Stahl
Temple University, USA – Vira Oleksyuk
Tennessee Technological University,USA – Micah Eller
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico – Dr. Miguel Banuelos Saucedo
University of Alberta, Canada – Hillary Sweet
University of Miami, USA – Dr. Nelson Salas
University of Rochester, USA – Dr. Jie Zhang
University of Washington, USA – Jarred Swalwell
University Santa Maria, Chile – Moulay Akhloufi
UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA – Dr. Kevin Dean
Asia
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院大学), China – Shan Gao
Tsinghua University (清华大学), China - 黄海东
Osaka University (大阪大学), Japan - Dr. 石井克典
Yamagata University (山形大学), Japan – Prof. 渡部裕輝
Osaka University (大阪大学), Japan - 小橋淳二
Nagoya University (名古屋大学), Japan – Dr. 山中真仁
Pohang University of Science and Technology (포항공과대학교), Korea – 다솔이
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (한국과학기술연구원), Korea – Jiwon Yune
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – Dr. Yongfu Wen
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong – Alexandr Melnikov
AUT University, New Zealand – David Taylor
Indian Institute of Technology Patna, India – Dr. Naveen Nishcal
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India - Sridhar Reddy Kandlagunta
University of Sydney, Australia – Prof. John Canning
Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand – Dr. Panomsak Meemon
Europe
Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic – Lukas Flajsman
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland – Outi Supponen
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands – Peter Christian Bakker
ETH Zürich, Switzerland – Dr. Nadia Gambino
Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, Germany – Prof. Dirk Berben
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany – Prof. Dr. Thomas Pertsch
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany – Hannes Rossmann
INEB, University of Porto, Portugal – Dr. Faustino Wahaia
Institut Fresnel, Aix-Marseille University, France – Charankumar Godavarthi
University of Barcelona, Spain – Dr. Jaume Garcia
University of Copenhagen, Denmark – Dmtiry Postnov
University of Kent, United Kingdom – Yong Hu
University of Latvia, Latvia – Edgars Nitiss
University of Pavia, Italy – Marco Rossi Borghesano
University of Zurich, Switzerland – Dr. Jerry Chen
Source: Edmund Optics