Finale

The awards ceremonies were nice, and took up most of Thursday and Friday.  While Amanda did not place in the to 30%, the experience was invaluable and she knows that making it to this fair is a great honor!  Amanda, Mrs. Harshman, and I (Mr. Harshman) would like to thank the Education Foundation and Brad Porinchak for sending us to Pittsburgh for this fair.  We all learned a lot and had a great time.  Amanda's future is very bright, and her experience at ISEF will be one she never forgets.

And so, finally, Pittsburgh has statues of normal people scattered throughout the downtown area.  It was a goal of our group to get Amanda's photo with each of them, so while we were waiting to leave for the airport, we accomplished this goal, as evidenced below.

So long from ISEF 2012!

Judging Day!

9 hours is a long time to be judged, but Amanda felt very good about her sessions! She got a few special awards judges that were very impressed, so we will see! Getting to this competition is an honor, and as Amanda sees it, if she were to win any awards here, it would be icing on he already awesome cake.

After that long day, we all went to Heinz Field and the Carnegie Science Center, where the students had a great time.

Thursday is public viewing day and Special Awards...followed Friday by the Grand Awards and a flight back! Can't believe we're about to wrap this one up...it's been awesome so far!

Kennywood, AE Club, and Heinz Field

We all got up early Tuesday morning, rented a car. went to the convention center to take care of some last-minute details, and headed to Kennywood, an amusement park near Pittsburgh that has been in operation since 1898!!!  There are some really awesome roller coasters there, new and REALLY old (1920s...), and we had a great day of fun before the judging starts!

As if that wasn't enough in one day, that night ISEF hosted a student mixer at the AE club, and had an adult gathering at Heinz Field.  It was a great ending to an awesome day, and Amanda was able to enjoy some of Pittsburgh's attractions before the big work begins!

Judging day should be great tomorrow.  After all the competitions she has entered (at least 9 this year alone!), she really knows her stuff and how to present it!  Good Luck to her!

The Incline and Opening Ceremonies

Monday started off with a walk over the Fort Pitt Bridge to the Duquesne Incline, a steep cable car ride up the side of a hill that overlooks Pittsburgh.  The views were amazing and the ride was really cool...in a cable car that was 135 years old!!!

We spent time afterwards at the convention center, taking in the expo, checking out other projects, and walking around the area.  Following that was a nice buffet dinner and the exciting opening ceremonies.  Amanda and Brittany were treated to some cool performances and the featured speaker...an ISEF Alum from 2007, who's invention won him inventor of the year in Popular Science!  They had a great time there.

Tomorrow, we're headed for some fun before the judging at Kennywood, one of the country's oldest amusement parks!  Stay tuned...

Set Up, Baseball, and Pins

We set up Amanda's board today.  It was very easy and she had no infractions!

When we were done with the board, Amanda found a place to get a tattoo...no worries, it's not permanent...

In the afternoon, we took in a few innings of a Pirates game.  PNC Park is awesome, and even though it was a little wet, we had a great time!

We are headed to the pin trading session now...she will get to meet people from all over the world and get pins from them!