Siemens Competition


The Siemens Competition was a science competition funded by the Siemens Foundation, which was administered by the College Board from 1999-2013 and by Discovery Education from 2014–2017. The Siemens Foundation released a statement on February 1, 2018 stating that the 2017 iteration of the competition was the final one.

History

purchased Westinghouse Electric Corporation's power generation unit in 1997, but sponsorship of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search was not part of the deal. When Siemens lost the bidding for the competition to Intel, Siemens decided to create the Siemens Foundation to continue the tradition using the well-known Westinghouse name, calling the new competition the Siemens Westinghouse Competition and, later, the Siemens Competition. The first awards were given in 1999.
The competition had the same goals as the old Westinghouse Competition, but with several added dimensions, most notably awards for team projects and regional awards. The regional finals were held in cooperation with six partner universities: MIT, Georgia Tech, Caltech, University of Texas at Austin, the University of Notre Dame, and Carnegie Mellon.
2007 was the first year that women won the top prizes in both the individual and team competitions at Siemens.
The individual winner was Isha Jain of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the top team winners were Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff of Plainview, New York.
The Siemens Competition ran for 18 years. On February 1, 2018, the Siemens Foundation announced that the 2017 competition would be its last.

Selection process

Each year, research reports submitted before a late-September to early-October deadline were subjected to a blind reading. 300 outstanding research reports, from more than 1600 entries, were selected as semifinalists. All semifinalists received a special recognition package, with their names announced in a full page USA Today advertisement.
From the pool of semifinalists, 30 individuals and 30 teams were selected as Regional Finalists and invited to compete during the month of November at one of the six partner universities. In addition to project content, judging was also based on the oral presentation, poster display, cited references, and the question and answer session. All regional finalists received $1,000 scholarships and bronze medals. One individual and one team from each region advanced to the National Finals. These Regional winners received $3,000 or $6,000 scholarships, and silver medals.
The National Finalists received an all-expense-paid trip during the first weekend of December to Washington, D.C. Winners of the Nationals received scholarships ranging from $10,000 to the coveted $100,000 grand prize for the top individual and top team.

Winners

Below is a list of the winners for each year of the Siemens Competition.

Individual Winners

Several schools were consistently successful in producing Regional and National Finalists. By far the most finalists came from North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and many finalists also came from the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, Troy High School, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and Oak Ridge High School. The schools listed below produced double-digit regional finalists.
SchoolCityStateRegionalNational
North Carolina School of Science and MathematicsDurhamNC6515
Texas Academy of Mathematics and ScienceDentonTX486
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and TechnologyAlexandriaVA406
Troy High School FullertonCA375
Oak Ridge High SchoolOak RidgeTN3512
Troy High School TroyMI307
The Harker SchoolSan JoseCA217
Carmel High SchoolCarmelIN213
Lexington High SchoolLexingtonMA198
Jericho High SchoolJerichoNY185
Ward Melville High SchoolEast SetauketNY184
Hathaway Brown SchoolShaker HeightsOH174
Stuyvesant High SchoolNew YorkNY173
Montgomery Blair High SchoolSilver SpringMD154
Monta Vista High SchoolCupertinoCA143
Illinois Math and Science AcademyAuroraIL132
Midwood High SchoolBrooklynNY130
William G. Enloe High SchoolRaleighNC113