Shame! Not One Desi in Intel Science Talent Top 10

By SearchIndia.com on March 16, 201111 Comments

Tragedy is what happens when all our Gujju boys, Tamil Iyers and UP Bhaiyas spend more time at the Swaminarayan Mandir or the Ganesh Temple or watching that stupid Dancing with the Stars shit instead of focusing on more important stuff.

Last night, Intel put out the results of its 2011 Science Talent Search competition, a highly regarded high school research contest.

And the results are soo depressing!

Folks, not one desi among the Top 10.

Referred to as the Junior Nobel Prize, the Science Talent Search is America’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Seven former finalists have won the Nobel Prize and one has even won an Academy Award for Best Actress (OK, schmucks, find out which one).

Here are the 2011 winners in order of merit (with their ages in parenthesis):

1. Evan O’Dorney (17)
2. Michelle Hackman (17)
3. Matthew Miller (18)
4. Madeleine Ball (18)
5. Selena Li (17)
6. Keenan Monks (17)
7. Benjamin Clark (15)
8. Xiaoyu Ciao (17)
9. Jenny Liu (18)
10. Scott Boisvert (17)

Do you recognize a single desi among the Top 10?

No, because there ain’t any.

Not one Indian kid among the Top 10! But there were three Chinese kids among the Top 10. 🙁

Among the 40 finalists this year, there were just eight desis:

* Rohan Mahajan (Cupertino, CA)
* Nikhil Parthasarathy (Mountain View, CA)
* Amol Aggarwal (Saratoga, CA)
* Shubhro Saha (Avon, CT)
* Shubhangi Arora (Novi, MI)
* Prithwis Kumar Mukhopadhyay (Woodbury, MN)
* Alydaar Rangwala (Loudonville, NY)
* Sunil Kochikar Pai (Houston, TX)

But none of them made it to the coveted Top 10.

Evan O’Dorney, the first prize winner this year, takes home $100,000 while the other winners get lesser awards. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement:

Evan O’Dorney, 17, of Danville, Calif., won the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for his mathematical project in which he compared two ways to estimate the square root of an integer. Evan discovered precisely when the faster way would work. As a byproduct of Evan’s research he solved other equations useful for encrypting data. This furthered an interest he developed as early as age 2, when he was checking math textbooks out of the library.

In 2010, Akhil Mathew (of Madison, NJ) won the third prize for his math project on Deligne categories, a setting for studying a wide range of algebraic structures with ties to theoretical physics.

Readers of this fine blog may recollect that Shivani Sud, a desi girl from North Carolina, won the top spot in the 2008 Science Talent Search competition.

Intel Science Talent, Shivani Sud

Shame! Not One Desi in Intel Science Talent Top 10 added by SearchIndia.com on March 16, 2011
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11 Responses to "Shame! Not One Desi in Intel Science Talent Top 10"

முனிAndy March 16, 2011 at 12:40 pm

I didn’t know that fact about her. For some reason I dislike her. Something seems phony about her. March 29/Netflix may help change that..

SearchIndia.com Responds:

Aha, so she’s the one. Thanks for unearthing that tidbit. Saved us some time.

As for the ‘phony’ thing, most people in the entertainment business come across as phony.

In our ever not-so-humble-opinion, Aishwarya Rai is the ne plus ultra of phoniness. Just see her TV interviews. Sick! 🙁

In our analysis, this ‘phony’ thing happens because of stars trying to please all the people all the time. And the ever-present morbid fear of making any controversial remark that could hurt their brand/business/image.

Remember, when the Dixie Chicks said those appropriately nasty things about George W.Bush, their music business took a big hit.
vjcool March 16, 2011 at 11:35 pm

Think it’s the Harvard educated one… Yes it’s she.

BTW have u seen V for Vendetta…?

SearchIndia.com Responds:

1. Yes, it’s she, the pregnant one, the Harvard-educated one, the Jewess, the one whose DVD is releasing on March 29, the Israeli emigre, the one who attended attended a Jewish elementary school near our old house, the un-sexy one (at least compared to the likes of the South African actress whose name eludes us now and Scarlett Johannson), the one American politician/potential 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee took a shot at recently and like us, the one who doesn’t believe in after-life and most important of all the un-Jennifer Lawrence.

Now, y’all know who she is.

2. V for Vendetta, No. Didn’t it get panned badly by the reviewers?
- vjcool March 17, 2011 at 4:10 am
  
  dont’t think it was panned.. maintains a good rating in both imdb and RT
  
  it was enjoyable.
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  New Yorker, a magazine we subscribe to, panned it. Here’s an excerpt:
  
  The movie has some visual life to it, but it’s so foolish that you come out shaking your head.
  
  BTW, New Yorker is a quality magazine and highly regarded here.
  - vjcool March 17, 2011 at 11:32 am
    
    well…
    
    lets say… it’s the regular Indian movie, where the hero takes on the system. But done with lots of flair.. Have a look..
    
    SearchIndia.com Responds:
    
    We’ll watch V for Vendetta. Soon!
    
    We like revenge stuff.
    
    Not to avenge your enemies, to crush them, to make them suffer, to see them reeling in pain is stupid.
    
    Fear of Revenge is what keeps Order in Society in many parts of the world where the law has no teeth.
- முனிAndy March 17, 2011 at 7:50 am
  
  Charlize Theron, I presume. Eng. seem to be engaged in another good game.
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  Charlize, yes. Thanks. What a voluptuous one. Like her better than Scarlett Johannson.
  
  We watched Chris Gayle blasting the English bowlers for a while. Sadly, he got out.
  
  Just (re)turned on Willow. West Indies 91-3 Need 153 Runs from 37 overs. 10:10AM EST
logu March 17, 2011 at 5:34 am

what’s ur thoughts on this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNyWOtoEOs&feature=player_embedded

heard its making waves down there!!!

SearchIndia.com Responds:

You write: what’s ur thoughts on this one…..

Just listened to your above link after turning off Chris Gayle blasting England bowlers to smithereens. 🙁

1. Talking in the library is bad. All races do it and whoever does it should have his/her balls (lower or higher, depending on the sex) crushed in a blender running at high-speed.

2. What’s her problem if the Asian kids’ sisters/mothers/cousins come and do their boys/girls laundry, buy their grocery and cook their food. None of her business.

3. The only ‘epiphany’ (a word she uses in her YouTube rant) we had was to see her big round tits struggling to come out of their enclosure.

4. All humans are racists. Some overt, some covert. Some all the time and others some of the time.

Indians are notorious racists in the U.S. in their shabby treatment of Blacks aka African-Americans these days.

It’s only the middle-class f*cks who make a big issue of racism. The others don’t give a flying f*ck.

BTW, did you know that the Great Abraham Lincoln, the American President who freed Blacks and won the Civil War, was a Racist. Lincoln wanted to send Blacks out of America to another country. Recent books on Lincoln have touched upon the subject.

In Springfield, Ill., on July 17, 1858, Lincoln said, “What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black races.” On Sept. 18, 1858, in Charleston, Ill., he said: “I will to the very last stand by the law of this state, which forbids the marrying of white people with Negroes.” Source: http://lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo44.html

5. In the early days, we used to think racism was abhorrent.

Now, as we move closer toward the grave we don’t think we give a damn because of our belated enlightenment that all humans are evil pigs at the end of the day.

Alas, Chris Gayle is out. LBW James Tredwell. 🙁
logu March 17, 2011 at 7:10 am

In this cricket season.. Here’s something for you to enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icQFLLlsyBs

and an entire collection of his witty one-liners which is fondly called as sidhuisms

http://www.squidoo.com/Sidhuism#module116830871

SearchIndia.com Responds:

The Sidhuisms are good.

Does the crackpot still go around bashing people in a road-rage?
kd36939 March 17, 2011 at 9:11 am

What is there to be ashamed of?! Indians are just 0.94 % of total US population. There are 8 desis among the 40 finalist. Thats 20%!! that is ~2000% increase considering the population ratio. Which other ethnic minority can match this?

Come on SI, come on. Tell us. (Read in TR’s tone)

SearchIndia.com Responds:

1. You write: What is there to be ashamed of?…Come on SI, come on.

Elementary, my dear ~~Watson~~ KD.

You see, Indians have been doing rather well lately in the Intel Science Talent:

2008 – First place by Indian
2009 – 4th, 8th & 9th positions by Indians
2010 – 3rd place by Indian
Source: Intel, Society for Science & the Public

So, we find it surprising and shameful that given their good recent-past performance Indian-Americans fared so badly this year as not to win even a single spot in the Top 10.

2. You write: Which other ethnic minority can match this?

The Chinese are doing quite well. We think three in Top 10 this year. 🙁
kd36939 March 17, 2011 at 10:55 am

Yeah agreed.

There is always a next year.

But how many American-Indians participated this year? What do you think is the reason they failed to perform this year? Why is there an unwritten rule that Indians should be consistently winning?

SearchIndia.com Responds:

1. You write: Why is there an unwritten rule that Indians should be consistently winning?

Because the family/home atmosphere is far better for Indian kids.

2. No idea how many desis participated.

Is the bad performance this year an aberration or a new trend? We’ll know in a few years.
kd36939 March 17, 2011 at 11:29 am

Are you watching the Eng vs WI match? Entertaining cricket from Eng.

SearchIndia.com Responds:

Yes.
latikahoo March 17, 2011 at 3:23 pm

SearchIndia, perhaps the analytical skills you applied [Deleted].

SearchIndia.com Responds:

No disposable e-mail addresses allowed here.

Come back with proper identifiers.

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