Cochrane High School student Parker Link was the recent recipient of a pair of prestigious awards for his Grade 9 science project.
Link was the winner of the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering prize and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) award for engineering (secondary category).
“I received second prize in the Schulich competition last year,” said the 14-year-old Link. “So, to win first prize this year plus the APEGA award as well (which is a very prestigious award) was really awesome.”
For his winning project, Link built a digital storage system, which stores computer data in a non-binary format (most systems store in a binary format).
“It’s not an analog system,” said Link. “Due to the way it’s been built it’s faster and stores more data than (a binary system).”
The Schulich School of Engineering (formerly the Faculty of Engineering) was established in 2005 when Seymour Schulich donated $25 million to U of C.
The school has since given out over 100 awards and scholarships to high school students for academic excellence.
APEGA offers awards every year at the Calgary Youth Science Fair in engineering as well as earth sciences.
As winner of each contest, Link received cheques for $500 (Schulich) and $250 (APEGA) plus a bonus of $75 for being the winner in a field of approximately 500 projects created by high school students.
Even though he did all of the work on the project himself, the support of his parents and sponsorship of Cochrane High teacher Lynn Moore was very important.
“Having (Ms. Moore) proof read the report helped an awful lot,” Link said of his science teacher.
So, what does he plan on doing with the money?
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with (the money) yet, it’s still in my bank account,” laughed Link.
Neither complacent in success, nor limiting himself to one field of science, Link has already started work on his project for next year.
“I’ve been doing an awful lot of chemistry lately. Next year’s project is very chemistry based.”
