MSEF In The News

Three-time winner of science fair takes her robotics project to international level

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Staff Writer

YARDLEY, PA. - A large and imposing gilded trophy, depicting a winged female figure in classical antique drapery, sits on the coffee table of the Wong home in Bucks County, Pa. She holds a wreath with her outstretched arms.

Nearby are three futuristic robotic devices, ingeniously devised of wires, cardboard, glue, screws, metal parts, rubber bands and other odds and ends.

Their octagonal geometric configuration makes a dramatic contrast to the traditional angel-like figure in a flowing gown, whose lineage dates back to Ancient Greece and Rome when the woman, believed to be a messenger of the gods, descended to earth to crown the victor in a contest of arms, athletics or poetry.

The trophy was awarded to Laura Wong, a 17-year-old science whiz, for her skills in science. The piece bodes well for a bright future in cutting-edge technology for the honor-roll senior at Villa Victoria Academy in Ewing.

Wong won the grand prize in the senior division of the Mercer County Science and Engineering Fair which took place March 14-18 at Rider University in Lawrence. The 51st annual science fair is sponsored by the Engineers Club of Trenton, in cooperation with Science Service Inc. of Washington, D.C., and Rider.

This is the third consecutive year that Wong received the top honor. The youngest of three children, all of whom are gifted in science and technology, Wong won for her project "Fault Tolerant Behavior-Based Robots."

By winning the grand prize in the senior division, Wong will next enter the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to take place May 9-15 in Portland, Ore. She will represent Mercer County at the event, during which students from 30 countries will compete for laurel wreaths.

"I'm just really excited," said Wong, a varsity soccer player and a Girl Scout who recently earned a Gold Award. "I've come a long way from my first science fair, and I'm really proud of myself for doing and accomplishing everything that I have so far, and I hope to continue working with robotics."

Wong's interest in robotics began in the ninth grade. She started entering the science fair when she was about 11. Her brother, Bobby, 19, now a chemical engineering student at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, had won an award at the fair for a robot. Her sister, Jennifer, 21, is a student in civic engineering and public policy at the same institution.

Wong assembled the robots in the basement, mostly on weekends and during school breaks, using power tools when necessary.

"You could hear things clanging and banging in the night," said her mother, Ann Wong, who has a degree in biological engineering. "This is not a kit that you go and put together. She is taking the raw parts and building it herself."

Laura Wong set forth a problem for herself, based on the fault behavior of her robots. "A regular behavior is when something is programmed into the robot and it will do what the behavior says. And if something fails in the behavior itself, then everything else will fail because everything is linked together." This is rather like a string of lights. When one goes out, so do all the others. But her project's fault-tolerant behavior is an innovation. "A behavior-based robot design can be made more resistant to failure through the use of meta-behaviors, combined with a hardware design that includes sensor and resources with overlapping capabilities," she wrote in her abstract. Or, to put it more simply, if something fails, there will be another fault-tolerant behavior that will take over, and it will continue going on, she said.

"So, for example, if the motor fails on the wheels, then it cannot move anywhere. But the beacon and the radio and the camera still work, so they can survey the area surrounding it and send information to the other robots." In essence, the fault-tolerant behavior is like a back-up generator at a hospital that will continue to provide electricity during a blackout.

Wong demonstrated her inventions by playing a "Follow the Leader" example, pivoting the robots and pointing out the beacon, camera and touch sensors that corrected the error conditions.

In Portland, she will be asked to demonstrate her inventions in much the same manner by a panel of judges in a grueling two-day session. About 1,200 scientific projects by other talented students will be presented.

"I hope to (place) first this year," said Wong, who wants to follow in her siblings' academic footsteps and attend Carnegie-Mellon. "About three million dollars worth of scholarships and prize money is given out at the fair."

Although that sounds formidable, Wong views it as a "lot of fun. It's something I've grown to like."

At the county science fair, various companies, agencies, schools and organizations presented approximately 150 prizes in the elementary, junior and senior divisions. Her trophy was awarded by Federal Alarm Co. She received first place in the senior division, a first-place award from Intel Computer Science; and awards from the U.S. Navy and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, to list a few. Last year, she garnered 10 awards, and the year before, eight.

For additional information
email webmaster@mercersec.org
or call Bill Wong at (215) 736-2449

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