Pakistani students win special award at Intel ISEF 2014

The students were honoured for their project titled working of wind turbine with low air pressure. -Photo by Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui

LOS ANGELES: The week-long Intel International Science and Education Fair 2014 came to an end over the weekend with the Grand Awards Ceremony held at the Los Angeles Convention Centre.

The Special Award winners included recipients from Pakistan.

The winning students from Daanish Girls School, Hasilpur, were awarded

$1,000 by King Abdul-Aziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity.

The students, Sana Batool, Shazia Bibi and Iqra Irshad were honoured for their project titled working of wind turbine with low air pressure.

Their teacher Sara Saeed, also present at the event, was thrilled by this acknowledgement.

The Daanish Girls School is a boarding school system that enrolls only those students whose household income is less than six thousand rupees.

Fourteen-year-old Iqra Irshad from Ahmedpur prefers mathematics "but my teachers say my physics is quite good".

She plans to have a career in electrical engineering. Resident of Vehari and the daughter of a farmer, Shazia Bibi said that this was the first time in her family a girl was obtaining higher education. She intends to become a mechanical engineer.

Sana Batool from Bahawalpur, the daughter of a seamstress, however plans on becoming a civil servant.

Earlier, speaking to Dawn, the participating students said that they had thoroughly enjoyed the opening ceremony which included exchanging of pins and badges with students of other countries.

Haris Bin Ashraf of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zahid College, DHA, Karachi, said that he wore the traditional attire of sherwani and Jinnah cap at the function due to which many students came up to him to get their picture taken.

"It was so much fun," he said. He was participating in the world's largest science fair along with his classmates Babar Shah and Tahir Ajmeri with their group project on converting plastic garbage into combustive oil and other commercial products.

"People are so curious about Pakistan and several students came to us to get their photos taken," said Iqra.

On Thursday, the students got a chance to showcase their projects to the general public at the convention centre.

Talal Agha of the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School who had created a surveillance spy robot using C-sharp programming was seen explaining his project confidently to several students and teachers who visited his booth.

Other participating students and their projects included cure of piles by Syed Minahil from Forward Girls College, Hayatabad, Peshawar and prevention of ozone layer by environment protection filter by Sidra Riaz of the Katchi Memon Academy, Gaya Girls College, Karachi.