Northwest Science Expo draws hundreds of high school scientists to PSU | OregonLive.com

Northwest Science Expo draws hundreds of high school scientists to PSU | OregonLive.com

Northwest Science Expo draws hundreds of high school scientists to PSU

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

April 01, 2010, 5:31PM

Among the hundreds of students competing in the state science fair at Portland State University on Friday will be three Portland freshmen who've discovered scores of videos on the Internet that could trigger epileptic seizures in some people.

Annelise Cummings, 14, and Alexander Harding, 15, of Cleveland High and Mariah Bruns, 15, of St. Mary's Academy already won best of show in the regional Portland Public Schools Science Expo, guaranteeing them a spot at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair next month in San Jose, Calif.

But today they'll also try their luck representing Cleveland High at the Intel Northwest Science Expo on the Portland State campus, where judges will evaluate 525 science, engineering and mathematics projects by 660 middle and high school students from Oregon and Southwest Washington.

The young scientists represent the top third of competitors from eight regional fairs and are about half girls, half boys, said Stephanie Jones, fair director.

"This is valid science going on," she said of their projects.

Cleveland High's sole team in the state science fair analyzed 71 YouTube