Innovation Hub

Two Mass. High School Students Named Intel Finalists

By Kara Miller   |   Monday, March 12, 2012
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March 13, 2012

intel

Intel competition finalists Xiaoyu He of Acton-Boxboro Regional High School and David Ding of Phillips Academy Andover.

UPDATE March 13, 2012: Congratulations to David Ding for his 4th Place win in the finalists competition this week in Washington D.C. The honor comes with a $40,000 cash prize.

Innovation Hub's Kara Miller talked with both finalists.

BOSTON — It's easy to overlook the incredible learning that takes place in our high schools when so much of what we talk about is budgets, testing, and "no child left behind."

Thanks to competitions like the Intel Science Talent Search, we can turn our focus to a couple of Massachusetts high school students and the innovations in Mathematics that led both of them to America's oldest and most prestigious, pre-college science competition. The Intel STS began awarding cash prizes to the country's top teenage researchers seventy years ago, and the list of alumni includes people who have gone on to earn more than 100 of the world’s most distinguished honors, including seven Nobel Prizes and four National Medals of Science.

All forty finalists are awarded cash prizes, ranging from $7,500 to the $100,000 grand prize. To enter the competition, students submit written reports of scientific research they have conducted during the school year. It's an extensive application, demonstrating creativity and interest in science, and requires supporting documents from schools, advisors and mentors.

Both He and Ding expressed surprise at becoming finalists, but they told Kara they have enjoyed their time in Washington D.C. with the other 38 students from across the U.S. Both young men entered the competition with research in Mathematics. He did his project at MIT. Using computer programming, He proved that certain types of rules are universal, in the sense that they can model all other rules, and in the process he gained insight into the symmetries and structure of rotor-routers. Ding has improved our understanding of representation theory of infinitesimal Cherednik algebras. Representation theory is a topic in algebra concerning symmetries of vector spaces.

While in Washington, D.C., the finalists meet leading scientists, visit historic places and meet with distinguished national leaders. Students display their research at the National Geographic Society where they describe their work to visitors. The video below, from the Society for Scientists, shows interviews with last year's finalists and will give you an idea of what Xiaoyu and David's week as STS finalists was like:


Finding The Next Big Thing

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, November 11, 2011
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Part 1: 

Part 2:

What are the challenges and possibilities of starting a business in today's climate? How do you identify the needs of a market?

We welcome two nationally-known business insiders for a wide-ranging conversation about seeding new companies, technologies on the rise and, of course, the next big thing.

Guests: 



Changing Health Care, One Invention At A Time

By Kara Miller   |   Saturday, October 22, 2011
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Audio: 

The devices we discussed in-studio: Vecna Medical's is seen on the left; the GlowCap from Vitality on the right.


We turn now to inventions that could change your experience at the doctor’s office, at a hospital — and even how you administer medicines at home.

And we'll talk about two inventions: The GlowCap, from Vitality -- a little pill bottle that reminds you to take your medications and tells you if you don't -- and an invention from Vecna that makes some scans go faster.

Guests:
 

Making Green Energy The Norm

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, October 7, 2011
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Episode 1, Part 1

Wind turbines are seen near the Columbia River in Washington State. (Shutterbug Fotos/Flickr)

America has talked for a long time about embracing green energy.

President Obama discussed the idea last year, saying, "Building a robust clean-energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. But it’s also how we will reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, a dependence that endangers our economy and how security. And it is also how we will leave our children a safer planet than the one we inherited."

So, what new technologies are available that allow households and businesses to rely on green, clean energy? And how do we scale them? A panel of experts joins us to look at the green revolution and how that revolution might remake America.

Guests:

Local Innovation: A Tool To Find Green-Energy Incentives

(realmofreals via Flickr)

Many homeowners and business owners are interested in building green buildings, retrofitting existing ones, or buying green appliances — but, initially, such projects can appear to be more expensive than taking less green routes. Jeremy Doochin and Jonathan Doochin, two brothers with combined experience in the Department of Energy, the private sector, and the non-profit sector, know that there's a web of state, local and private incentives available to make such projects cheaper, but it can be difficult to navigate them. They have founded U.S. Green Data, a website that puts information about available incentives in one place to help customers understand how they can save money on green projects, and offers consulting, analysis and ROI reports.

Click the player above to listen.
 

New Innovations In Tackling Obesity

By Kara Miller   |   Thursday, October 13, 2011
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Episode 1, Part 2

Many experts say school food, like this lunch, needs to get healther to tackle the issue of childhood obesity. But how well does that work? (Ben + Sam/Flickr)  

In the second part of Innovation Hub's inaugural program, we turn to the problem of obesity. What are the most effective behavioral solutions? The best drugs in development? What does the newest research on obesity tell us about how to treat it?

Our guests:


Click the player above to hear the full conversation.

Innovation Hub Is Moving (Websites)!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012
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Change is in the air: Innovation Hub is now airing Saturday at 7 a.m. on 89.7 and Saturday at 5 a.m. on Classical New England ... and the show has a new website. Thanks for following us so far, and please follow us now on the new WGBHNews.org.

If you've subscribed to this blog in Google Reader or another RSS reader, here's the new link for the RSS feed.

About Innovation Hub

Each week, Kara Miller talks to Boston's most innovative thinkers, examining new ideas and potential solutions to today’s many challenges. Topics range from education to health care to green energy. Join us on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m.

About the Host
Kara Miller Kara Miller
As a radio host, Kara Miller has interviewed thinkers from E.J. Dionne to Howard Gardner, Deepak Chopra to Lani Guinier. She is a panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," as well as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The National Journal, The Boston Herald, Boston Magazine, and The International Herald Tribune.

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