Filipino high-school students Kyle Christian Cloma and Jaz Villanueva have advanced as finalists in the global Breakthrough Junior Challenge, joining with 14 others, with Cloma topping the Popular Vote in Asia.
Cloma and Villanueva advanced to the finalists level from among the 32 semifinalists after the Popular Vote that ended on September 20. This was the first time that two Filipinos qualified as finalists.
Cloma, 16, from Mandaluyong City, has his entry titled „Negative curvature“ using the mathematical “Theorema Egregium,” Latin for “Remarkable theorem.”
The theorem was a result of differential geometry that was proved by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1827. The Gaussian theory shows that the curvature of a surface does not change even if one bends the surface without stretching it.
Villanueva’s video focuses on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. She said it is a continuation of the idea that theories will keep developing with us.
The others finalists are Popular Vote topnotcher Ema Donev, 14, of Croatia; Minatullah Ammar Abduljabbar, 17, Iraq; Armani Adams, 17, Trinidad and Tobago; Sahand Adibnia, 18, USA; Abel Dagne, 18, USA; Elias Fariz, 16, USA; Yunseo Ha, 15, USA; Noor Abbas Haideri, 16, USA; Alex Kader, 16, USA; Sean Lewis, 18, USA; Weber Lin, 17, USA; Aryan Malhotra, 15, USA; Vasanth Narayanan, 18, USA; Milo Shan, 17, South Africa.
The winner will be announced in November.
The winner of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge will be awarded a $250,000 college scholarship. The science teacher who inspired the winning student will win a $50,000 prize. The winner’s school will also receive a state-of-the-art science lab valued at $100,000, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
The 2017 Challenge winner was Hillary Diane Andales, 18, from the Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus. Her entry topic was “Relativity and the equivalence of reference frames.”
The students created 90-second videos on wide-ranging topics, from quantum entanglement to time travel to adaptive immunity and T-Cell therapies.
The contest is designed to inspire fresh, creative explanations of fundamental concepts in the life sciences, physics and mathematics.
The videos were judged according to the following criteria: engagement, illumination, creativity and difficulty.
For the eighth year, students ages 13 to 18 were invited to create original videos that illustrated a concept or theory in the life sciences, physics or mathematics.
Since its launch, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge has reached 202 countries with more than 80,000 registrants. The 2022 instalment of the global competition attracted more than 2,400 applicants.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge, founded by Yuri and Julia Milner, aims to develop and demonstrate young people’s knowledge of science and scientific principles; generate excitement in these fields; support science, technology, engineering and mathematics career choices; and engage the imagination and interest of the public-at-large in key concepts of fundamental science.
Image credits: Business Mirror Screenshots from videos