Andrew Jin, 17, wins Intel science talent search

World Today

Andrew Jin, was one of three first place winners in Intel’s Science Talent Search this week, beating out 1,800 students who submitted experiments and discoveries. CCTV America’s Philip Yin interviewed Jin about his winning research, and what it’s like to be $150,000 richer.

Andrew Jin, 17, wins Intel science talent search

Andrew Jin, won Intel's Science talent search this week, beating out 1,800 students who submitted experiments and discoveries. CCTV America's Philip Yin interviewed Jin about his winning research, and what it's like to be $150,000 richer.

Jin, of San Jose, California, won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Global Good for developing a machine learning algorithm to identify adaptive mutations across the human genome. By analyzing massive public genomic datasets, his system discovered more than 100 adaptive mutations related to immune response, metabolism, brain development and schizophrenia in real DNA sequences. Understanding the genetic causes of these diseases is an important first step toward developing gene therapies or vaccines.

Jin is also an accomplished pianist who has performed at Carnegie Hall. He told CCTV America’s Yin that he will use the prize money to pay for his college tuition and urges young scientists to explore more and discover new things.

Also winning the first-place, $150,000-prize was Noah Golowich, 17, of Lexington, Massachusetts, who won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research, who developed a proof in the area of Ramsey theory, a field of mathematics based on finding types of structure in large and complicated systems.

Michael Hofmann Winer, 18, of North Bethesda, Maryland, also won $150,000 and the First Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation. He studied how fundamental quasi-particles of sound, called phonons, interact with electrons. His work could potentially be applied to more complex atomic structures such as superconductors.