Science Competition Awards All Top Five Prizes to Girls – for the Very First Time

This year’s Broadcom MASTERS competition in the United States was a special one, with talented 14-year-old girls winning all the top five prizes in a first since the program’s launch.

The Broadcom MASTERS – an acronym for Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars – encourages middle school students to pursue their passions and see how their ideas can lead promising futures.

Alaina Gassler won the top award worth $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize, and Rachel Bergey, Sidor Clare, Alexis MacAvoy, and Lauren Ejiaga were each awarded with $10,000. Their projects include innovative ways to remove blind spots in cars, protect trees from invasive insects, build bricks on Mars, remove heavy metals with a water filter, and study the effects of ozone depletion.

“With so many challenges in our world, Alaina and her fellow Broadcom MASTERS finalists make me optimistic,” says Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, which runs the competition. “I am proud to lead an organization that is inspiring so many young people, especially girls, to continue to innovate.”