secret doorway, originally uploaded by emeralde.

This picture is incredibly mysterious to me. I took it during a trip to Spain. It’s a building outside of Granada’s Alhambra. The doorway in the picture leads to a much larger courtyard behind.

If any of you are familiar with the International Science and Engineering Fair (known as ISEF), you can pretty much picture what ISWEEEP looks like. The difference is that ISEF is put on by Intel and ISWEEEP is put on by the Cosmos Foundation.

Over 50 countries represented and about 80 languages were spoken at ISWEEEP. It was amazing; everytime I turn around, a different language is spoken. (Kinda made me dizzy too :] ) This fair is extremely well planned for having only nine month, whereas ISEF is planned four years ahead of time. There were two planned field trips by the ISWEEEP people. On Friday (the first day) we went to Rice University and had a tour of its lab facilities. There, we met and spoke to the Nobel Prize winner, Robert Curl. (For those who don’t know, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for his discovery of the fullerine, which is the 3rd structure of the carbon compound.) On the second day, we were judged. Judging of the projects ranged from 9am to 12:30am, break, and then from 2pm to 5:30pm. Yes. Judging is quite exhausting. Afterward, there was a student mixer/pin exchange/flag exchange at the hotel. I got to meet those students from all over the world and form relationships with them. Additionally, there was an apple eating contest and an egg-run contest. I became good friends with some boys from Kazakhstan and we exchanged gifts.

The next day, ISWEEEP took us to NASA. We had a tour of the facilities and we got to see the projects that are currently underway. It was extremely eye-opening and it is an inspiration to all. After the NASA tour, the awards ceremony commenced. It lasted 3 hours, so it was a good thing I won something. I won $500 from the Cosmos Foundation for the data compilation from my project, a full tuition to Louisianna State University’s School of Engineering, and a silver medal (2nd place) plus a $1000 check. 

The last night there, I went with a bunch of my new friends to the pool. We played water polo (no, I didn’t get my ear bitten off, but I vow to never play it with a bunch of rowdy boys ever again.) We were all sad to leave ISWEEEP and we all plan to come back next year.