Siemens Competition participation

GanonvsLink5
Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:10:56 +0000

My son is trying to participate in the Siemens competition, but there are just so many obstacles. The main obstacle is the lack of mentors. The teachers at his school don’t have the time to help him with a project of this size. So the only place he has to turn to are the nearby universities. However, whenever he contacts the professors, they either tell him to go somewhere else, make excuses, or simply not reply (happens most of the time). I’ve been thinking about a summer research program, but they’re too expensive. He’s also been having a rough time picking a good topic, mainly because he only wants to do a project based on either physics or chemistry (mainly physics). Earlier he was thinking of doing one on superconductivity, but he couldn’t find anyone in a field similar to his. To all former/current Siemens Competition participants, how did you find a mentor? How did you think of a topic?