September 4, 2019

The Top 300 MASTERS were announced by the Broadcom® Foundation and Society for Science & the Public on September 4. Five Plano ISD students have been selected as part of this elite group. The Broadcom® MASTERS is the nation's premier Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) competition for middle school students. The Top 300 MASTERS were selected from over 2,300 applicants. Each application was reviewed and evaluated by scientists, engineers and educators. Nominees qualified to enter the Broadcom MASTERS by being among the top 10 percent of the participants at their Society-affiliated science fairs during the 2018-19 school year. Congratulations to:

• Otto Beall, Otto Middle School (now at Plano East Senior High School), Project title: An Affordable Braille Embosser II
• Winston Gruver, Renner Middle School (now at Shepton High School), Project title: Life Through a Tinted Glass
• Adil Husain, Rice Middle School, (now at Jasper High School), Project title: iSight: Artificial Intelligence Brings Vision to the Visually Impaired 
• Patrick Lu, Schimelpfenig Middle School (now at Jasper High School), Project title: Mission Impossible—How a Computer with No Network Connections Can Have Its Data Stolen Using Light, Sound, Temperature and Other Variables
• Kevin Sun, Rice Middle School (now at Jasper High School), Project title: Effect of Engineering Nanoparticles on the Uptake and Accumulation of Arsenic in Rice

The 9th annual Top 300 Broadcom MASTERS include a nearly equal number of girls and boys, with about 52% males and 47% females. Students from 37 states, plus the District of Columbia, with California (77), Florida (40), Texas (29), Pennsylvania (16) and Utah (12) fielding the most Top 300 competitors. And 199 students were from public schools, 76 from private schools, 16 from charter schools and nine from home schools.

On September 18, thirty of the Top 300 Broadcom MASTERS will be selected as finalists by a nationally ranked panel of scientists, engineers and educators. Top 30 winners will travel to Washington, D.C. to compete in a four-day STEM competition for more than $100,000 in awards and prizes. These finalists will participate in team challenges aimed at demonstrating their mastery of 21st Century skills in each of the STEM areas, meet with government officials and showcase their projects for the public in Washington, DC on October 26. They will also compete for the $25,000 Samueli Prize, the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention, the $10,000 Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation, the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement and the newly created $10,000 STEM Talent Award, sponsored by DoD STEM.