15-yr-old girl to represent to India at Google Science Fair

A 15-year-old girl from Punjab has become the only Indian student to make it to the finals of the Google Science Fair, 2013, a company statement said. Shrishti Asthana, a Class 11 student from Millenium School, Mohali, had presented a project on a solar power-assisted green technique for degradation of detergents and was chosen from among thousands of participants from 120 countries. "The inspiration for the project came when Shrishti went on a field trip to Ludhiana and was disturbed by the dire state of the disposal technique of industrial waste... She began her journey to find a green solution to turn waste detergent water from industries into an eco-friendly alternative," the statement said. According to Google, Asthana would be competing with 14 other finalists from around the world who would be taken to the Google headquarters in the US Sep 23 to submit their projects to a panel of international scientists. The winner will receive a 10-day trip to Galapagos Islands with National Geographic expeditions, $50,000 in scholarship funding and other prizes. The Google Science Fair is an online science competition started in 2011. It is open to students of 13-18 years of age, who formulate hypothesis, perform experiments, and present results to a panel of experts.