Saturday, May 14 2005 17:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston: India's Malvika Vinod Tiwari and 40 Indian-American teenage students are among the winners of 'Grand Awards' in various scientific disciplines at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world's most prestigious pre-college competition, in the US.

Malvika of St Mary's Convent High School in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, won her grand award in Engineering category for her project 'Foot Operated Vehicle Device for the Physically Challenged'.

Forty Indian-American students were also among the winners of grand awards that were presented to the finalists of the 2005 Intel International Science and Engineering fair at Phoenex, Arizona yesterday (May 13, 2005).

The overall Grand Awards of $ 50,000 scholarship each were won by Ameen Abdulrasool of Chicago, Gabrielle Alyce Gianelli of Orlando, and Stephen Schultz of Nordrhein- Westfahlen, Germany for projects on a navigational system for the blind, possible discovery of an ancient coastline on Mars and a lower-cost technology to analyse compounds used to protect against diseases respectively.

They were among 1,447 students who competed at the 56th annual international event in Phoenix, Arizona.

Each year, tens of thousands of students participate in regional affiliated fairs to earn the opportunity to compete at Intel ISEF. They present their projects in one of 14 scientific disciplines: Behavioural and Social Science, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Science, Engineering, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Medicine and Health, Microbiology, Physics, Space Science and Zoology.