Earlier this week, 18-year-old Erica DeBenedictis, a high school student from Albuquerque, NM, walked home with $100,000 USD and top honors at Intel's 2010 Science Challenge, an annual competition that invites high school students to come up with innovative solutions to solve current and future scientific problems.

The brilliant 18-year old managed to edge out 1,737 high school seniors from all over the USA, with a software project, that helps spacecrafts find the most efficient way to navigate through our solar system. Her research involved examining the gravitational pulls and movements of the planets, to create routes that would enable spacecraft to move faster, using less fuel and therefore, be able to go longer distances.

While thrilled at winning this prestigious competition, the 18-year old is not new to winning science challenges. She won her first honor at a Science Fair in 2005 and has since, won many prizes including the top prize at last year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world's largest International pre-college competition.

The second prize of $75,000 USD went to David Liu, a senior at San Jose's Lynbrook High. David's entry involved developing a system that recognizes and deciphers digital images. Unlike the other entries, David's invention is already being used to identify hazards to buried oil pipelines.

The victory was extra sweet for David, who thought he hadn't even made it to finals, after finding out that some of the East Coast competitors had already received the calls.

However, West Coast based Intel Corporation had a special treat for David and Raman Nelajanti, another finalist from the same school. They surprised the duo by showing up with over-sized checks for $7,500 USD and presenting them in front of the whole school amidst much fanfare.

The third prize of $50,000 USD went to Akhil Mathew, a senior at Madison High School in New Jersey . Akhil's winning entry was a math project that sets the stage for studying a wide range of algebraic structures that have ties to theoretical physics.

Besides being a math whiz, Akhil is also good at Chemistry and French and is already tutoring his peers at the school. He has been taking math classes at Drew University since he was in eight-grade and he recently helped them prepare a math book for publication. He is also a moderator at an online math forum for John Hopkins University. Akhil hopes to attend Harvard or MIT - We have no doubt he will have his choice of either!

The Intel competition, now in its 67th year, attracts over 1,700 entries in a wide range of science and math disciplines. Only 300 semifinalists make the first cut from this list, which is further narrowed down to the top 40.

The finalists are flown to Washington D.C, where they compete for the top ten prizes, which ranges from $100,000 USD to $20,000 USD. The remaining 30 finalists receive $7,500 USD each. Every finalist receives a new laptop and best of all - The opportunity to meet the President or Vice President of the United States.

Past winners of this contest have gone on to win some of the World's most prestigious science prizes, including six Nobel Prizes. We have no doubt this group of young geniuses will join that distinguished list soon. To read about the rest of the winners, go to:http://www.intel.com/education/sts/winners.htp

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