After a weeklong competition and rigorous judging, the top winners of Intel Science Talent Search 2010 were finally announced tonight at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. Erika DeBenedictis, 18, of Albuquerque, N.M., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for her project developing a software navigation system to help improve spacecraft travel through the solar system. Second place honors and $75,000 went to David Liu, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., for his work to develop a system to recognize and understand digital images. Third place honors and $50,000 went to Akhil Mathew, 18, of Madison, N.J., for his math project on Deligne categories, a setting for studying a wide range of algebraic structures with ties to theoretical physics.

The Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop the skills necessary to solve the problems of tomorrow. Over the past 68 years, Science Talent Search finalists have gone on to win seven Nobel Prizes, two Fields Medals, three National Medals of Science and 11 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships.

You can learn more about all top honors from the competition here.

Congratulations to Erika, David and Akhil, as well as to all the participants for their brilliant work!

Tags: education, inspire, Intel STS, Math and Science

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