New York:  An Indian American student from LongIslandshas shared a $30,000 annual scholarship sponsored by Siemens, the Germanelectronics conglomerate. 

Vijay Jain, a senior at HerricksHigh School in New Hyde Park, New Yorkand Jinju Yi, a senior at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, New York shared the scholarship for fourth-place in theteam category for their unique project in creating a biosensor, which usesmolecular-imprinting technology to detect viruses and cancer at their earlieststages.

The Siemens competition in math, science and technology is asignature programme of the Siemens Foundation, which provides nearly $2 millionin scholarships and awards annually.

Both Jain and Yi said they decided this summer to worktogether."We became close friends," said Jain. 

"We both knew we wanted to work together," addedYi.

They merged divergent interests: Yi was focused oncancer-related research, while Jain was drawn to fighting bioterrorism.
 

"We found detection technology would definitely be thestrongest link," said Jain, according to Newsday newspaper. 

 More than 1,600 students entered the competition, from which345 semi-finalists were named, including 89 from New York. Six regional finals were heldaround the country, producing the 20 national finalists.

Source : IANS