<p>I am curious about Intel STS. I’d like to know if I have to write about something NEW? or
do I have to write about something that already exists?</p>
<p>Absolutely new cutting edge research. My son was a SF a couple of years back, and his project took several years to complete but found a completely new area of cs theory. His regular paper with graphs and footnotes was 50 pages before he cut it down to the limit of 20. He did win a Davidson Fellowship. </p>
<p>Some people have startlingly great research in just the summer before the submission, so as long as you are doing real scientific inquiry, you will be fine. Library “research” of published info is not appropriate tho.</p>