Students win NASA competition

Hampton, Virginia – May 14, 2008 – Wonder what the passenger and cargo aircraft of the future will be like? You may want to ask high school seniors Tom Neuman, from George Walton Comprehensive High School in Marietta, Georgia, and Aditya Singh, from Anglo-Chinese Junior College in Singapore. The two won top prizes from NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for their essays about their concepts for multi-functional personal air vehicles in 2058. More than 140 students from 50 schools across the United States and 15 other countries submitted 65 entries in four categories. The top teams were three eleventh-graders from West High School in Torrance, Calif., and three ninth-graders from the National High School of Computer Science, Tudor Vianu, Bucharest, Romania. "It is wonderful to see high school students from all over the world thinking about the future of aeronautics and writing down their ideas about potential solutions for the challenges facing the global aviation enterprise," said Juan Alonso, manager of the mission directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "The students' inventiveness and creativity is extremely impressive." NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program sponsored the annual competition that was judged by NASA managers and engineers. The judges based their scores on how well students focused their papers and how well they addressed four basic criteria: informed content, creativity and imagination, organization and writing. NASA will award the top scoring papers from the U.S. with a trophy and a cash prize of $1,000 for the individual award winner and $1,500 for the team. Non-U.S. students will receive a trophy, but are not eligible for cash prizes. All participants will receive a NASA certificate and a personal letter of commendation. A complete list of winners of the high school contest can be found here.		US Individual Awards First place Tom Neuman, Grade 12 George Walton Comprehensive High School, Marietta, Georgia Second place, tie Michael Donelson, Grade 12 Flagstaff High School, Flagstaff, Arizona Edric San Miguel, Grade 10 Norfolk Technical Center, Norfolk, Virginia Third place Michael Mamlok, Grade 10 Monterey High School, Lubbock, Texas US Team Awards First place Jeffrey Lee, Daniel Oh, and Jay Park (All Grade 11) West High School, Torrance, California Second place Madison Friedman, Aaron Rusheen, Jonathan Batscha, and Jared Hershler (All Grade 10) Milken Community High School, Los Angeles, California Third place Matthew Calloway, Grade 11 and Nathaniel Bush, Grade 12 Prairiland High School, Pattonville, Texas

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