---
title: "Google Science Fair"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Science_Fair"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:24:32.933261+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== 2015 Winners ==
The 2015 Google Science Fair closed for entries on May 18, 2015, with regional finalists announced in London on July 7, 2015. These included Lauren McKenzie (14) who built an automatic soil watering system, Shadab Karnachi (14) who designed a low-cost gaming device for people with visual impairments, Nishanth Kumar (16) who designed a low-cost 'hands-free' mouse for use by people with developmental disabilities, and Peter He (14) who developed an innovative wireless virtual reality system.
The global finalists representing 10 countries were announced on August 4, 2015, and were as follows:
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Anela Arifi and Ilda Ismaili – A system for alternative fuel production and storage using chicken feathers
Canada
Isabella O'Brien – Trouble in Paradise: Recycling shell waste to reduce ocean acidification
Calvin Rieder – Extracting clean water from air: solar-powered solution for providing potable water
France
Eliott Sarrey – Bot2Karot: gardening through a smartphone-activated robot
India
Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai – Absorbing water pollutants with corn cobs
Lithuania
Laura Steponavičiūtė – Detecting the environmental dangers of nanomaterials
Russia
Alexey Tarasov - Using ternary logic on current electronics
Singapore
Girish Kumar – RevUp: improving learning through auto-generated study questions
Zhilin Wang – Zinc air batteries for affordable, renewable energy storage
Taiwan
Wei-Tung Chen – Calculating the 3D position of an object from a single source
Yo Hsu and Jing-Tong Wang – Knock on fuel: detecting impurities in gasoline with sound pattern analysis
United Kingdom
Krtin Nithiyanandam – Improving diagnosis and treatment for Alzheimer's with new molecular "Trojan Horse"
Matthew Reid – The ArduOrbiter: a lightweight, open source satellite
United States
Anika Cheerla – Automated and accurate early-diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease
Anurudh Ganesan – VAXXWAGON: a reliable way to store and transport vaccines
Olivia Hallisey [WINNER] – Temperature-independent, inexpensive and rapid detection of Ebola
Deepika Kurup – Solar powered silver combating bacteria in drinking water
Pranav Sivakumar – Automated search for gravitationally lensed quasars
Adriel Sumathipala – Creating a simple diagnostic tool for earlier detection of cardiac disease
Tanay Tandon – Delivering rapid, portable and automated blood morphology tests
The winners were announced on September 21, 2015. The Grand Prize was won by Olivia Hallisey (16) with her project ‘Temperature-Independent, Portable, and Rapid Field Detection of Ebola via a Silk-Derived Lateral-Flow System’.  The Google Technologist Award was won by Girish Kumar (17) for his project ‘Revup: Automatically Generating Questions from Educational Texts’ and the Incubator Award was won by Elliott Sarrey (14) with his project ‘Bot2karot: Manage Your Vegetable Garden via Your Smartphone’. The Lego Education Builder Award won by Anurudh Ganesan (15), the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award won by Pranav Sivakumar (15), the Scientific American Innovator Award won by Krtin Nithiyanandam (15), the National Geographic Explorer Award won by Deepika Kurup (17) and the Community Impact Award won by Lalita Prasida.

== 2016 Winners ==
The 2016 Google Science Fair closed its entries on May 17, 2016, the Global 16 Finalist were announced on August 11, 2016. The final event took place during 24 to 27 September 2016 at Mountain View, California. Sixteen finalists competed for top five awards. The first two rounds had two age groups 13–15 and 16–18. However, unlike previous years, top awards during the finalist event did not distinguish between the two age groups of the previous rounds, thus making it particularly challenging event for the contestant compared to all previous years.
The Grand Prize was won by Kiara Nirghin (16) of South Africa for her project 'Fighting Drought with Fruit'. The Lego Education Builder award was won by Anushka Naiknaware (13) of United States, the youngest contestant to win a top award ever, for 'Smart Wound Care for the Future'. The National Geographic Explorer award was won by Mphatso Simbao (18) of Zambia.  The Scientific Innovator Award was won by a team of three for 'Fighting Foam Waste with Recycled Filters' from the United States [Ashton Cofer (14), Luke Clay (14) and Julie Bray (14)]. The Virgin Galactic Pioneer award was won by Charlie Fenske (16) for 'Making Rockets more Efficient', also from the United States.

== 2017 Winners ==
The competition did not begin as usual in May, 2017. Starting from the late summer, the official website stated that "We're conducting some experiments" and "Coming Fall 2017". The submissions of competition in 2018 began on 13 September 2018.

== 2018 Winners ==
The Google Science Fair returned with 179 different prizes available for 2018–19. It opened for entries on September 13, 2018, and closed its entries on December 12, 2018. State award winners were announced in March 2019, regional award winners in April 2019, and global finalists in May 2019. On July 29, 2019, the top five awards were issued for students and one for an inspiring educator. The Google Grand Prize, featuring an award of a $50,000 educational scholarship, went to Fionn Ferreira, of Ireland. His project was titled "An investigation into the removal of microplastics from water using ferrofluids." The National Geographic Explorer award was won by A U Nachiketh Kumar and Aman K A, of India, for finding an eco-friendly way to coagulate rubber. The Lego Education Award was won by Daniel Kazantsev of the Russian Federation, who wanted to find a better way to help those who are hearing impaired to communicate with the world around them. The Scientific American Award was won by Tuan Dolmen of Turkey, who found a way to harness energy from tree vibrations. The Galactic Pioneer Award was won by Celestine Wenardy of Indonesia, for creating a low-cost and non-invasive glucose meter.

== See also ==

Science fair

== References ==

== External links ==
Official website
Previous Winners