Overview
RENCI encourages North Carolina middle school and high school students to pursue research in the areas of engineering and computing through its sponsorship of the Innovation and Technology Award for North Carolina Science and Engineering Regional Fairs.The award recognizes students whose projects demonstrate high standards in technology and/or engineering, giving special consideration to projects that increase public awareness of the integration of computer science and computing technologies used in energy and transportation and/or environmental sciences. The winners receive an award certificate and an iPod Nano.
RENCI collaborates with its engagement centers to sponsors these awards regionally. RENCI partners with RENCI at East Carolina University for the award at the Northeast Region Science Fair (Region 1), RENCI at the University of North Carolina Charlotte at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Science Fair (Region 6b), and with RENCI at the University of North Carolina Asheville for the award at the Western Regional Science Fair (Region 8).
Due to budget cuts, no awards were issued in 2010. However, we anticipate that the award program will resume in 2011.
2009 RENCI Innovation and Technology Award Winners:
- Kyle Decker, Hendersonville High School, Hendersonville, NC, for his project, “Paper Plane Dynamics.”
- Olivia Palmer, Hendersonville High School, for her project, “Up, Up and Away.”
- Amber Adams and Kavirath Jain, Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy, Charlotte, NC, for their project, “Landslide.”
- Sarah Dellana, Conley High School, Greenville, NC for her project, “Designing an Energy Efficient Switch.”
Funding
North Carolina
Partners
- RENCI at East Carolina University
- RENCI at the University of North Carolina Charlotte
- RENCI at the University of North Carolina Asheville
- RENCI at the UNC Coastal Studies Institute
Project Team
Karen Green, project leader
