M-A students win science honors M-A students win science honors (March 24, 2004)

Two Menlo-Atherton High School students took top honors for scientific achievement at the 16th annual San Mateo County Science Fair, held recently at Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos.

Freshman Robbie Eaton won first place in the engineering science category, and junior Collin Cronkite picked up first place in the math and computers category.

Both students were first-place winners at last year's San Mateo County science fair.

Robbie and Collin were granted $250 and $1,000 college scholarships, respectively, two of only six scholarships given at the fair, which showcased some 300 projects from 48 public and private schools.

The two advanced to the San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair to be held March 23-27 at the Hall of Flowers in San Francisco.

Because of their first-place finishes, Robbie and Collin also advanced to the California State Science Fair, to be held May 24-25 in Los Angeles. This will be Robbie's second, and Collin's sixth invitation to the state science fair.

Robbie Eaton

For his project, "DigiSonic Batman: He's Watching You!," Robbie extended conventional sonar echolocation by adding azimuth information derived by sensing and comparing twin microphones.

According to Robbie: "My project developed out of my experiments with sound and music from last year. I combined the pulsed sound measurement techniques from last year's project with trigonometric properties I learned in Ms. Reklis's Algebra II class at M-A."

Robbie used a servo-controlled mannequin head as a pointing device to indicate angle direction. Possible applications include smart torpedoes, autonomous robot guidance, and guidance aids for the blind.

Collin Cronkite

Collin programmed a home computer for his project, "A Computer Model of the SARS Epidemic."

"My simulated results show that the SARS virus can be sufficiently transmitted so as to cause a very large epidemic if uncontrolled," he said. "On the flip side, an outbreak can be contained and extinguished by basic public health control measures such as isolation."

Cronkite learned C++ programming last year in M-A's advanced placement computer programming class taught by John Dumanske.

Both M-A students labored with project design, program debugging, and display board construction during the school year.

Robbie and Collin are also involved with M-A's Robotics Team and the Quiz Kids Team. Collin runs track at M-A while Robbie competes on the school swim and water polo teams.

INFORMATION

Local schools in the Almanac circulation area are invited to submit information about science fair winners to: editor@AlmanacNews.com.

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