Studer Community Institute

PHS student shines in premier science competition

May 29, 2015
/ Staff Reports
/ education

A Pensacola High School student is among the best worldwide in science and engineering. Will Langhorne placed fourth in the world in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Intel ISEF is the premier science competition in the world and provides a forum for some 1,700 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions and territories to showcase their independent research annually. The event this year, the event was held in Pittsburgh, from May 10 through May 15. Langhorne was among 14-to 17- year-olds from around the world who qualified to attend the fair by sharing ideas that could make a difference in the world,” said Cherie Stephens, PHS biology teacher and adviser. “Each of them won state and national fairs in order to get the opportunity to attend this international event,” Stephens said. “They called the final award winners, and we were sitting behind the country of Qatar, and they announce ‘fourth place in Robotics and Intelligent Machines … Pensacola, Florida goes to Will Langhorne!’ It’s the world’s largest stage in science fairs and we have a winner from Pensacola walking across it. Incredible!” Langhorne qualified to attend along with Pensacola High School International Baccalaureate students Holley Meaney, Patricia K. McAuley and Lauren Beall. They won regional science competitions in the spring. Langhorne’s research project focused on how simple behaviors can be implemented into an interconnected decentralized swarm robotics system to generate complex behaviors without using extensive coding or sensors required by centralized robotic systems. To accomplish this, an interconnected decentralized swarm robotics was designed that mimicked the simple behavior of the natural decentralized system called Physarum polycephalum. Langhorne’s work was inspired by work and writing of Professor Andrew Adamatzky of the University of West England in the United Kingdom. “I think the biggest thing about attending this event was the ability to interact with like-minded peers,” Langhorne said. “It was inspiring to see everyone’s projects. The PHS students who qualified for the Intel event focused their project on age and gender during eyewitness testimony. They are concerned with 4 percent of the convicted population wrongfully accused by eyewitness testimony. Tricia Kay McAuley, the lead team member for the girls’ team, described their investigation project investigation. “Using a short video depicting a crime, we tested how age and gender affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies,” McAuley said. “But applying the data to graphs and statistical analyses, we concluded that females ages 16 to 30 were most accurate, and males ages 5 to 15 the least accurate." Stephens recalled hearing a speaker say that as young people become adults, they hear the word “no” too many times. “As young adults, if you can capture a child’s enthusiasm and curiosity before the No’s of the world get to them, they can make a big difference in the world,” she said. “It’s huge!”

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PHS student shines in premier science competition

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