Hawken Junior Wins Four Awards at Science Fair

Junior Alec Lai took home a total of four awards and $225 in prize money at the recent Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair held at Cleveland State University.

His project, the "Shape Effects on the Swimming Characteristics of Snake-Like Soft Robots" explored "how different wave shapes/forms would affect the swimming speed of a snake," he said.

"It was a theoretical physics project, and, thus, it was mostly generating equations and calculating data and graphs. I chose to research this topic because I am interested in physics, and it is part of my three part research on micro-sized snake-like soft robots."

Lai took first place and $100 in the physics category for grades 10-12 as the primary fair prize.

His additional three special awards were:

CSU Department of Physics Award
"Since the fair was hosted at CSU, members and professors at CSU present awards to the top members of each department," Lai said. He received the top award of $100 in the physics department.

Northern Ohio Association of Herpetologists
"Members from this association gave awards to projects that seemed to be most applicable to their profession. Since mine was about snake-like soft robots and the swimming of snakes, they awarded me this prize [of $25]."

Yale Science and Engineering Association
"The Yale Science and Enginnering Association selects one project out of all the Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Science projects that seemed most advanced and in-depth and awards them with a Pewter Medallion and Certificate"

The Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair has been in existence since 1953 and seeks to encourage student interest in science and engineering. Nearly 500 students from over 80 schools compete at the four-day event vying for nearly $20,000 in prizes.