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News at The Jisan Research Institute in 2010
JRI Celebrates Third RSI AcceptanceApril 10, 2010
 Jisan Research Institute student Ayesha Bose recently learned of her acceptance to the prestigious Research Science Institute summer program at MIT, making her the third JRI student in its history to have been offered a place in the competitive program. RSI is perhaps the nation.s most well known high school research program. Founded in 1984, RSI is a six-week program held every summer at MIT, and provides its attendees with lectures from distinguished professors and scientists. The students are also assigned a research mentor and a research project for the summer; oftentimes, the student will submit his or her project to the annual Intel Science Talent Search competition following their work at RSI. The program boasts more Intel Science Talent Search Honorees and Winners than any other educational organization in the U.S.
The program selects 45 American students and 30 international students amongst the many promising and precocious high school students who submit an application. Ayesha submitted an application after hearing about the program via the Internet and from various friends who had previously applied to the program. A San Diego native, Ayesha commutes from San Diego to the Los Angeles area every weekend to attend classes at the Jisan Research Institute.
.I think my work at JRI definitely distinguished me from the rest of the applicant pool. I.ve talked to my other friends who.ve applied to RSI in the past.none of them have been able to get in because it.s a super competitive program. Just to know that I had research experience and a background where I was going to JRI.and working with things that [go] beyond the regular school curriculum separated me from any other applicant..
At JRI, Ayesha has been working on a computational research project geared toward finding a practical method for solving problems with a large number of possible solutions. She has been working to mathematically prove that an optimal solution exists, and then to uncover what that exact solution is. Her project is just one of many going on at JRI, which has celebrated the new decade with eight new paper acceptances to conferences around the world. Additionally, technologies developed at JRI have been awarded an issued patent and four pending patents.
JRI.s two other RSI admittances in the past . Allen Cheng and Jeff Manning . are now JRI alum, and are both well into their academic careers. Allen Cheng attended RSI and went on to become an Intel Semi-finalist, and is now attending the M.D./PhD program at Harvard University. Jeff Manning turned down his acceptance to pursue another project, and is now studying mathematics at Caltech.
Like many other RSI applicants, Ayesha, Allen, and Jeff were all standout students in their local high schools. Ayesha is currently enrolled in several AP and honors classes, and serves as President of her robotics team, as well as Vice President of her school.s Science Olympiad team. However, in today.s increasingly competitive academic world, a little more is needed to distinguish even the brightest high school student. High school research is gaining steam as a stamp of a student.s potential and dedication; many JRI students get a taste for what a career in science is like, and if it.s right for them. Students who stay the course and manage to get a scientific paper published before even setting foot at their eventual college already have a leg up on their peers. Ayesha will enter RSI with a strong background in the computer science project she has been accepted into. Her work at JRI has empowered her with strong skills in a variety of computer languages . a fact that has made her into the lead programmer on the robotics competition team at her high school. In addition to her software skills, Ayesha has also spent time in the machining shop at JRI, giving her the rare ability to enter a university with the ability to design, build, and characterize a project with her own two hands. As of now, Ayesha aims to enter a university with a strong engineering or computer science program, and hopes to continue on into grad school before entering the industry. And with her work at JRI and her forthcoming summer at RSI, she is well on her way toward all of those goals.
Summer Students Win Big With Summer Project
March 24, 2010
The Jisan Research Institute brings in the spring of the new decade with major contributions to energy research. A group of high school students, originally attendees of JRI.s summer research project, have been invited to the ECI and Renewable Energy conferences in Italy and Japan, respectively, for their contribution to green energy technology. Summer science projects are more known for their instructive, rather than innovative, qualities. Yet, the Jisan Research Institute continues to buck this trend. The research group.s project began as an application of existing Jisan technologiesbefore blooming into a study that made significant contributions to the scientific community the students wish to join.
The students designed and constructed a wind turbine under the guidance of Research Mentor Dr. Sanza Kazadi. The turbine is incorporated in a solar energy pump capable of distilling water and vertically pumping materials up to several hundred feet upwards in a single stage. Remarkably enough, the pump itself is powered by nothing other than the sun, and uses no moving parts.
The students took advantage of a side effect of the solar pump to design, construct, and characterize a wind turbine based on a frictionless axle . another extant Jisan technology. The solar pump internally created a high speed wind, making it possible to drive a highly efficient turbine that generated electricity.
The members of the group are:
- Annie Han - Webb School
- Aaron Chen - Burbank High School
- Leslie Chae - San Marino High School
- Richard Li - Arcadia High School
- William Seto - Alhambra High School
All five students began their scientific careers at JRI by constructing the pump and turbine throughout the summer of 2009. Assisted by Research Mentor Dr. Sanza Kazadi, the group managed to get the device working by summer.s end. Dr. Kazadi urged the group to continue on through the year to finalize the project and write up the results in a paper for submission to a scientific conference. Recent JRI graduate and pump coinventor Mark Webb assisted with the writeup.
The group submitted their paper to two different conferences, both of which accepted the work. The five students now have the unique opportunity to travel to an international scientific conference and present their findings to professional scientists from around the world . all before their first year of college, when aspiring scientists and engineers normally begin their contributions to science.
The solar pump itself was invented by Dr. Kazadi and Mark Webb while Mr. Webb was still a student at JRI. Now a UC Berkeley student and up-and-coming star at Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratories, Mr. Webb made the smooth transition from community college to a four-year university with the help of JRI.s unique program.
Like many other students before him, Mr. Webb's career in science was jump-started by his work at JRI. The research program welcomes any student interested in science, making it a haven for precocious young scientists to gather and form a supportive community.
After graduating from the program, Mr. Webb returned to JRI as an instructor for the summer program, and helped foster the same spirit of learning and innovation that has brought him, and many other JRI grads, success in their scientific careers. This pioneering spirit has certainly manifested itself with this particular group of summer students, proving how a simple high school summer science project can turn into a life-changing opportunity for the future.
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