Today, Google announced the 90 regional finalists of the Google Science Fair 2012. Of the 90 finalists, six hail from the Middle East. Of those six, three come from Egypt, from the cities of Alexandria and Zagazig. The Google Science Fair is an international competition which encourages students between the ages of 13 to 18 from all over the world to be curious, ask questions, and perform science experiments. In partnership with the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), National Geographic, LEGO and Scientific American, Google invited students to post their science projects online so that they may compete for prizes, scholarships and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. “Egyptians are appearing in international competitions more than ever before, said Wael Fakharany, Google's Regional Manager for Egypt and North Africa. And they are being recognized for their achievements! I'm very proud to see young Egyptians showing their talents. This is only a small step for the future of the country and we are delighted to share the local talents of Egyptian to the rest of the world." In the 15-16 year category, Omar Obeya submitted a computer science project that would improve the efficiency of binary search by changing its implementation. The other two finalists are in the 17-18 year category. Khalil Ibrahim who is 18 years old submitted a project that would make the Internet safer, while Reda Abdallah, also 18 years old, submitted a project reflecting the impact of different treatment methods for the hippocampus on cognition in the human brain in order to treat Alzheimer's. The Science in Action Prize runner up, Menna Abdel-Gawad, an Egyptian student living in Saudi Arabia, worked on a project to find an efficient way to purify sea water. The project is based on using different types of distillation to purify the water. In the next phase of the competition, 15 global finalists will be announced and the winner of the Scientific American Science in Action award on June 6. They will be selected by an elite group of scientists who will evaluate their projects. These top 15 and the Science in Action winner will be flown out to Google's headquarters in California in July for our celebratory finalist event and for the last round of judging, which will be conducted by our panel of renowned scientists and innovators.From these 15 finalists, a winner will be selected in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18), as well as one grand-prize winner. This year's competition was even more international and diverse than last year. The competition had thousands of entries from more than 100 countries, and topics ranging from improving recycling using LEGO robots to treating cancer with a substance created by bees to tackling meth abuse. Judges were impressed by the quality of the projects, and it was no easy task to evaluate the creativity, scientific merit and global relevance of each submission to narrow down the entries to just 90 finalists. For 2012, the competition has a special “Science in Action" prize by Scientific American which will be awarded to a project that addresses a social, environmental, ethical, health or welfare issue to make a practical difference to the lives of a group or community
