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AFCEA Educational Foundation Announces the 2010 National High School and Middle School Science Fair Grand Prize Winners

Hahn has received a number of awards at the regional, state and international levels with his Science Fair projects. His project this year was entitled "Nuclear Fusion By Inertial Electrostatic Confinement: Increasing Efficiency with Thermionic Emission." The goal of the project was to increase the efficiency, measured through neutron output, of a fusor by the addition of a thermionic gun which uses a heated tungsten filament to ionize atoms. Hahn built and tested his own functional nuclear fusion reactor in his basement from parts he borrowed and bought. He then pursued two processes to improve the efficiency of the reactor, first unsuccessfully by using a magnetron and then, successfully using an ion gun. Because nuclear fusion reactors have not yet reached sustainable break-even energy levels that generate more power than they consume, they are not yet practical sources of commercial power. It is believed that eventually breakthrough methodology will be developed to enable their use, thus each improvement in efficiency, as demonstrated in Hahn's project, gets one step closer to making that a reality.

Hahn is a 2010 graduate of The Classical Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the fall he will attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, on a Tier I Navy ROTC scholarship to study Aerospace Engineering. Post graduation, Hahn plans to become a Navy Pilot and aspires to work for NASA. During his High School career, Hahn was involved in many extracurricular activities including Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Golf. He has also held the positions of Staff Sergeant, Flight Commander, Aerospace Officer, Aerospace Flight Commander, and Flight Simulator Coordinator while participating in Civil Air Patrol. Soon, Hahn will complete the requirements to receive his pilot's license. Hahn also enjoys science experimenting, reading, scuba diving, video games and airsoft battles.

Also attending the LandWarNet Conference and Exposition is the AFCEA High School Science Fair's First Honorable Mention winner, Janie Gu, a rising senior at High Technology High School, Lincroft, New Jersey, nominated by the AFCEA Fort Monmouth Chapter. She will be exhibiting her project "Detection and Differentiation Between Targets: Towards Improving the Precision of an Atomic Magnetometer." The purpose of her research was to reduce the magnetic noise experienced by an atomic magnetometer system and thus lower the sensitivity and improve the precision of the device. The project uses a resistor-inductor series circuit to measure the magnetic permeabilities and magnetic loss factors of three commercially produced ferrite materials that were formed into a torroid coil core. The results found an improved shielding material with lower noise than ones currently in use, which would have many practical applications related to magnetometers or with numerous devices that use magnetic fields, such as those used in communications electronics, the military, medicine, and space exploration.

Gu is a member of her school's varsity tennis team, National Honor Society, math and physics leagues, and an officer in the Technology Student Association. Among her other hobbies are photography, writing, graphic design, singing, playing piano, and running. In her spare time, she has conducted various scientific studies and experiments that led her to receive top awards at regional, state, national, and international levels. These studies have encouraged her to mentor students at local middle schools to help them conduct research of their own, and she hopes to continue this work in the future. She also shares her skills as a tutor for calculus, a coach for tennis and a counselor for summer science camps. After High School graduation, Gu plans to attend college and study mathematics and physics. She hopes to one day become a scientist or engineer and help change the world through further research and developing pioneering technologies.

The AFCEA Educational Foundation is also pleased to announce Tommy Giacobbe, nominated by the AFCEA Hampton Roads Chapter, as this year's grand prize winner of the 2010 AFCEA National Middle School Science Fair Award for the best middle school science project related to communications, intelligence or information systems. Giacobbe's prize was an all-expenses paid week at Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama. His project, "Effects of Metal Types and Electrolytes on the Strength of a Voltaic Cell," compared the effects of a voltaic cell with eleven different metals and five different electrolytes to find the combination with the highest voltage in a simple voltaic cell. Giacobbe's results show that the greater an electrolyte's PH differed from 7.0, the more voltage was produced.

Giacobbe, a rising seventh grader from Lincoln Middle School in Edwardsville, Illinois, enjoys playing soccer, flying RC planes, swimming, riding go-karts, and playing chess on his iPod Touch.

The Middle School Science Fair and Space Academy prizes were made possible by a generous grant from the Tiger Woods Foundation.

For a listing of all the 2010 AFCEA Science Fair Winners, go to ('http://www.afcea.org/education/scholarships/HSsciencefairwinners10.htm').

The AFCEA Educational Foundation promotes excellence in education with scholarships, awards, grants and prizes, awarded annually to students studying the scientific and technical disciplines that support communications, intelligence and information systems. AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a non-profit membership association serving the military, government, industry, and academia as an ethical forum for advancing professional knowledge and relationships in the fields of communications, IT, intelligence, and global security. For more information, please visit AFCEA.org (http://www.afcea.org).

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