AAUW CO once again awarded two female scientists for their efforts at the Colorado State Science and Engineering Fair hosted by Colorado State University. This year the Fair was completely virtual with an exhibit showcase. While a few participants had videos, most projects were highlighted via PowerPt presentations. AAUW recognized participants at both the senior high and middle school levels. Award winners were Stella Laird of Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder and Emma Peters of Broomfield High School. The winners each received $100.

In “USING COMPUTER VISION TECHNIQUES TO COUNT JELLY BEANS”, Miss Laird built her own computer programs from scratch (using Python and OpenCV apps) that could scan a photo and tell you the exact number of objects in it. She started out with jelly beans, and then expanded to other types of objects. The count needed to be very quick and accurate on a large sample size, which could be used to replace tedious and error-prone counting done by people. Her project falls into the coding category of Computer Vision. There are many applications for Computer Vision, such as: ● face recognition ● traffic surveillance ● object identification.

It was very impressive that a middle school student built a computer program that accurately counts the number of objects in a picture by locating each object and determining if it has seen that object before; and if not it, adds the object to the count. Going forward she wants to expand her program so that it can also tell you what flavor the jelly beans are!

Miss Peter’s project entitled, “CHANGE IN ONSET POTENTIAL OF CO2 ELECTROREDUCTION USING GOLD”, used a computer simulation to the project the exchange of protons and electrons that would allow for a layer of gold to capture carbon. The application is obvious as a single CO2 capture plant can remove 1% of total global CO2 emissions in eight years. Through electroreduction, this greenhouse gas can be removed from the environment and converted into energy-dense CO. Previous DFT studies accounted for potential effects inadequately, while this simulation applies a rigid energy shift based on the number of electrons transferred and only allows transfer of protons and electrons together.

It was impressive, that she obtained access to a CU supercomputer and she will verify the results in the lab this summer as software can not completely allow for realistic reactions. We can’t tell you too much about it – since she might want to patent it one of the days! “#$%

The Science Fair remains a crucial outlet for young ladies to demonstrate their science capabilities and garner confidence and recognition. A special thanks to Marilyn Frydrych for helping me interview these exhibitors. (Due to the virtual format – sorry, no pictures this year.)

—Brenda Wolfe, Science Fair Chair