Intel Science Talent Search spotlights America's whiz kids and Plane Hits, Kills Man on South Carolina Beach

Done on March 18,201o
# 1 This is talking about the top ten of the nation’s most innovative scientists convened in Washington this week to receive their version of Olympic Gold — temporarily putting aside their homework to do so. Also Erika DeBenedictis, 18, of Albuquerque won first place in the Intel Science Talent Search, a prestigious competition for high school seniors, at a gala held the evening of March 16. DeBenedictis earned a $100,000 scholarship from the Intel Foundation for her work designing an autonomous navigation system that could help spacecraft travel swiftly and efficiently along an “interplanetary superhighway,” using planets’ gravity to catch a ride.
She then had a running mate that placed second and a $75,000 scholarship went to David Liu, 18, of Saratoga, Calif. Liu wrote software to automatically search and organize digital pictures. He trained a computer algorithm to recognize when certain features, like buildings, faces or the color green, were present in a picture, and wrote a program to display similar pictures in linked groups. Beyond organizing personal photo albums, the system could be helpful in medical imaging, space exploration and detecting threats to oil pipelines, Liu suggests. Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, has administered the Science Talent Search since its beginning in 1942. The Intel Foundation sponsors the competition. Vying for more than $630,000 in scholarships and other awards, the 40 finalists in this year’s competition were selected from more than 1,700 entrants, and represented 36 high schools in 18 states. Science Talent Search finalists have gone on to win seven Nobel Prizes, 10 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants, two Fields Medals and three National Medals of Science. This can use more information and also talk about how they find america's wiz kids.

# 2 HILTON HEAD, S.C. — A 38-year-old father of two was jogging and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing on the beach, officials said Tuesday.
Robert Gary Jones of Woodstock, Ga., was killed instantly on Hilton Head Island on Monday evening, said Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen.
The single-engine plane had lost its propeller and the pilot's vision was blocked by oil on the windshield, Allen said.
Jones was married and had two children, the coroner said.
"Apparently he did not see nor hear the plane," Allen said. "The plane was basically gliding."
Hilton Head fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister said the identities of the pilot and a passenger on the Experimental Lancair IV-P plane were not released. The two were not injured.
The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, Fister said.
The oil on the windshield blocked the pilot's vision and he told authorities the propeller came off the plane. When he tried to land on the beach near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit the jogger and came to rest a little farther down the beach, she said.
"I would have to say it's pretty unusual," Fister said.
FAA records show the aircraft was registered to Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va., with a certificate issued in 2004. Smith has a private pilot's license, according to FAA records. Nobody answered early Tuesday at a phone number listed for Smith and a message was not immediately answered.
The plane left Orlando at 4:45 p.m. and was headed for Virginia, Fister said. The four-seater plane has a turbine engine, can be built from a kit and can fly up to 370 mph, according to the Lancair Web site. The IV-P model has a pressurized cabin.
This can use less information and talk more about the plane.