Top science students compete for scholarships at fair

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ For two weeks during Christmas vacation, Collin Arnold did nothing but work a computer program that would guide a small eight-legged robot around the room. <br/><br/>This week, the

Friday, May 14th 2004, 6:00 am

By: News On 6

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ For two weeks during Christmas vacation, Collin Arnold did nothing but work a computer program that would guide a small eight-legged robot around the room.

This week, the senior at Marshall High School in San Antonio is among the hundreds of finalists at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

More than 1,300 teenagers from 40 countries compete for more than $3 million in scholarships and prizes, including a trip to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony. This year's panel of judges includes a record number of Nobel laureates, Intel officials said.

When Arnold explains the technical details of his self-guided robot, he sounds far older than his 18 years. Wearing a dark business suit, he demonstrates the robot's ability, noting the Mars Rover inspired it.

``It's quite a bit more difficult to build'' because it doesn't have wheels like the rovers, Arnold said. ``But I wanted to develop a system that could map and explore its environment. It can traverse multiple terrains.''

The other students entered projects ranging from high-tech to basic science, in all fields from chemistry to biology to physics. Some have spent months and even years of their young lives working on research and engineering.

Tarang Luthra got the idea for his project from his mother's cooking: It was ruining his homework. The frequency of the microwave interfered with the signal that connected his computer with a wireless network in his home.

``That got really annoying to save my homework every two seconds because I kept getting kicked off that network,'' Luthra said.

Luthra, a junior at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, developed a way to fine-tune the wireless receiver antennas to reduce interference and even reduce the number of antennas.

``I really didn't know anything about it when I started,'' he said after explaining the nuances of overlapping radio waves and trigonmetric functions.''