Nine Indian American youths named 2011 Davidson Fellows

NEVADA: Nine Indian Americans from around the country accounted for half of the 18 bright young people recently named 2011 Davidson Fellows who exemplify the extraordinary work that can be accomplished by students in the United States when given opportunities to excel.
Based on their achievements in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, music and literature, four of the Indian American students will receive $25,000 while the other five will receive $10,000 scholarships from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national non-profit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev., that supports profoundly gifted youth.
The $25,000 scholarship recipients are Arjun Aggarwal, 16, of Columbia, South Carolina; Siddhartha Jena, 17, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Caleb Kumar, 15, of Blaine, Minn.; and Sunil Pai, 17, of Houston, Texas.
The $10,000 scholarship recipients are Cheenar Banerjee, 16, of Rochester, Minn.; Jayanth Krishnan, 17, of Mahopac, New York; Anirudh Prabhu, 16, of West Lafayette, Ind.; Shalini Ramanan, 17, of Richland, Wash.; and Raja Selvakumar, 15, of Alpharetta, Georgia.
Priyanka Menon, of Ann Arbor, Mich., received honorable mention for her work on “Indo-US Relations Through Philosophy and Literature.”
To win his $25,000 scholarship in the category of technology, Aggarwal created GNut-III, an Anthropometric Interactive Robot with Vision, Intelligence and Speech. He found the lack of an economically efficient and functional human robot has prohibited researchers from continuing to expand the field of robotics. To counter this, the GNut-III is economically efficient and functional for testing robotic algorithms.
In the science category, Jena demonstrated that the immediate effect of elevated cholesterol is dysfunction of active water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide transport by the red blood cells.
Using a spectrofluorometer and Zeta Sizer, he showed that exposure of red blood cells to two compounds, ONO-RS-082 and glyburide, results in an amelioration of cholesterol’s detrimental effects.
Also in the science category, Kumar developed an algorithm that automates the diagnosis of bladder cancer. The software is accurate, quick and inexpensive compared to current methods, and has the potential to provide faster, cheaper and more precise diagnoses of cytological diseases.
In science as well, Pai constructed an inexpensive, nanotechnology-based system to determine quantum energies of superoxide. By examining oxygen in the liquid phase instead of the gas phase, his potentiostat system can determine the quantum structure for the electron attachment reaction of oxygen to superoxide. This will offer new insights into biological and environmental processes.
In the category of technology for the $10,000 scholarship, Banerjee developed a method for emotion detection by computers.
In the science category, Krishnan developed an approach to infer regulatory mechanisms governing changes in gene expression and identified possible proteins that induce cancer.
In mathematics, Prabhu established the first nontrivial analytic lower bounds for odd perfect numbers. The search for odd perfect numbers is one of the oldest unsolved problems in mathematics.
In science, Ramanan worked with Bisdemethoxycurcumin, a natural dietary component of the spice turmeric, to test its effectiveness in treating cardiovascular diseases.
Also in science, Selvakumar developed the Gastro Microbial Fuel Cell. Based on the microbial fuel cell, the GMFC generates electricity using gastrobacteria to be used to power capsular nanobots.
Source: India West