the-BA : Gurjits ISEF diary

Gurjit Singh Sidhu from Dundee carried with him the hopes of the UK as he represented our young scientists at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Arizona (9-13 May 2005).

Gurjit was awarded a place at the fair, which runs from 9-13 May, after impressing judges at the BA CREST Science Fair in London back in February with his project testing equipment to measure the dose of radiation that cancer cells received during radiotherapy.

13 May

I had an early start today because there was an award ceremony in the morning and then one in the afternoon.

The one in the morning were awards given out by the US government so nearly all of the awards were given to US residents and in the afternoon, more awards were given out to students from all around the world. I was very happy to win a $1,000 scholarship from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance/ The Lemelson Foundation.

To celebrate we had dinner today in a very prestigious revolving restaurant in our hotel on the top floor. The view was amazing and we went just at the right time to see the sun melt into the desert horizon whilst eating a great meal. Tomorrow we have to say our goodbyes and we leave to come back to the UK at about 3pm, so this will be the last diary entry.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my diary as much as I've enjoyed writing it and thanks to everyone who has taken time out to read it!

12 May

Today I had a relaxing day. We went shopping at Arizona Mills which is a very large indoor shopping centre about 50 minutes from my hotel. Whilst at the shopping centre, me and the other boys from the UK engineering fair got a really cool caricature made of all three of us as a remembrance of our tour to Phoenix for the Intel ISEF 2005.

Later we enjoyed dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, Phoenix whilst discussing how we thought the award ceremony will be tomorrow.

11 May

Today was the day of judging. We were let into the hall where our individual dispays were set up at around 9 am and judging began at 10 am. The judges seemed impressed at my project and due to the fact it was based on irradiating cancer, they liked the idea that I carried out a project which is very practical in everyday life.

It was great meeting people from all around the world and chatting to them whilst waiting for our judging times. It seemed easy to make friends with people in my row who were from Germany, Texas, China, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and many more countries.

After a long hard day of judging all the students were invited to a cowboy themed park for entertainment and food. I went to the rodeo which was very cool. There were many shops selling full cowboy outfits and I have to admit I was very tempted to buy!!!

Tomorrow I will have to present my project to the public and then I get the rest of the day to go shopping.

9 May

Today I spent the whole morning setting up my display. This included getting the judges to make sure I didn't have any violations. The competition is very strict! But I managed to get it all up without breaking any rules. Hopefully the judges will like it when they look around later in the week.

The opening ceremony took place today which included talks from Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and a representative of the software company Intel who are sponsoring ISEF.

Tomorrow I head off to Sedona which is a city in Arizona which has beauiful red rocks- it's supposed to be similar to the Grand Canyon on a much smaller scale!

8 May

I touched down in Phoenix today after 10 hours in a packed plane along with good entertainment including new films, music and of course, the loud crying babies! I was stopped at the immigration checks because they wondered why I was going to Phoenix. So I told them all about the science fair and luckily they agreed to let me through the checkpoint!

My first impressions of Phoenix are very positive. It is a very clean place and there is no pollution. It has an excellent exotic feel - when you step out of the hotel you are faced with palm trees and wild cacti along the side of the road!

Tomorrow I go off to the Grand Canyon for a full day which I am really looking forward to. I have an early start so that's all from me just now.

6 May

Hi! My name's Gurjit Singh Sidhu, I'm 17 and come from Dundee, Scotland. I am currently studying my advanced highers at St. Johns High School, and will be going to Strathclyde University this year to study mechanincal engineering. My hobbies include playing cricket, football, drumming, golf and cycling.