Monday, February 09, 2009 3:16:57 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
p>A team of students representing Aviation High School has been named a finalist this week in the annual "Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards." The honor went to Lamond Le and Sam Swan for their project, Seattle Instruments.

Teams of high school students participate in the competition to develop new business opportunities in the fields of personal spaceflight, lunar exploration, or renewable energy. This competition engages high school students in creating commercial products using science and technology. Students create unique products, produce viable business plans, and are given opportunities to bring their ideas to market. This competition provides students with the ability to network with scientists, university professors, world business leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. The competition gives students an opportunity to develop hands-on applications of today’s STEM education.

The finalists will attend the Innovation Summit^TM, April. 2-4, 2009, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, California. Here, they will meet world-level innovators such as technology, business pioneer, and author Judy Estrin; Tim Draper, founder the global venture capital firm Draper, Fisher Jurvetson; and David Pensak, Ph.D., an internationally recognized leader in computer software technology and innovation. The teams will present their ideas to an expert panel of judges, attend workshops, and compete for more than $120,000 in prize money.

The Conrad Foundation, primary sponsor of the contest, will recognize innovative thinking among youth and build a new generation of scientists to solve some of the most pressing problems of the 21^st Century.

The not-for-profit foundation was formed by Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Charles "Pete" Conrad, who was the third man to walk on the moon and a veteran of four space flights spanning Projects Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab.

"Innovation is what this country does best," said Nancy Conrad. "It is what sent Pete to the moon, and it is the very foundation of our knowledge-based economy. Through this competition, we are growing the future innovators that will keep America economically and intellectually solid."

To learn more about the Pete Conrad "Spirit of Innovation" Awards visit http://www.conradawards.org/