Intel to End Sponsorship of Science Talent Search
QUENTIN HARDY September 9, 2015
英特爾將停止資助美國“科學天才獎”
QUENTIN HARDY 2015年9月9日
SAN FRANCISCO — Intel , the world's largest maker of semiconductors, is dropping its longtime support of the most prestigious science and mathematics competition for American high school students.
舊金山——英特爾(Intel)這家全球最大的半導體製造商，打算放棄長久以來對最負盛名的美國高中生科學和數學競賽的支持。
The contest, called the Science Talent Search, brings 40 finalists to Washington for meetings with leaders in government and industry and counts among its past competitors eight Nobel Prize winners, along with chief executives, university professors and award-winning scientists.
這項競賽名叫“科學天才獎”(Science Talent Search)，40名決賽入圍選手可以來到華盛頓，與政府高官和企業高管會面。其參賽者中曾產生過八名諾貝爾獎得主，以及一些首席執行官、大學教授和獲獎科學家。
Over the years, the award for work in so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — has made national headlines and been an important indicator of America's educational competitiveness and national priorities. When it was started as an essay competition in 1942 , its first topic was “How science can help win the war.” The male winner, or “Top Boy,” went on to develop an artificial kidney. The “Top Girl” became an ophthalmologist. A single winner was first named in 1949 .
多年來，這個面向“STEM領域”——科學(science)、技術(technology)、工程(engineering)和數學(mathematics)——成果所頒發的獎項，經常受到全國媒體的關注，它也是一個重要的風向標，標誌著美國教育的競爭力和全國的關注點。1942年，這項競賽首次舉辦，形式是作文比賽，其首個話題是“科學能如何幫助我們贏得戰爭”。那次優勝的男選手——或者叫“頂尖男孩”——後來開發了一種人工腎臟。而“頂尖女孩”日後成為了一名眼科醫生。第一名單個獲勝者於1949年產生。
Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
奧巴馬總統與2012年英特爾科學獎決賽選手的合影。
“When I was a finalist in 1961, it was the Sputnik generation, when America was competing with Russia to get into space,” said Mary Sue Coleman, a former president of the University of Michigan and a current member of the board of the Society for Science and the Public, which administers the contest. “It was a national obsession. People in school cheered us on like we were star athletes. I got letters from the heads of corporations.”
“我在1961年入圍決賽，那是人造衛星的一代，當時美國正在和蘇聯展開太空競賽，”瑪麗·蘇·科爾曼(Mary Sue Coleman)說。她曾任密歇根大學校長，目前是科學與公眾協會(Society for Science and the Public)董事，該協會負責舉辦這項競賽。“當時全國都很迷戀這個比賽。學校的人為我們加油，好像我們是明星運動員似的。我還收到一些大企業老闆的信。”
Dropping support for the high school contest is a puzzling decision by Intel, since it costs about $6 million a year — about 0.01 percent of Intel's $55.6 billion in revenue last year — and it generates significant good will for the sponsoring organization. Intel has also increased the size and scope of the award, giving more than $1.6 million annually to students and schools, compared with $207,000 when it began its sponsorship in 1998.
英特爾不再支持這項高中競賽的決定令人疑惑。因為其資助款項每年只有600萬美元左右——大約只佔英特爾去年556億美元總營收的0.01%——還能為贊助商帶來商譽。英特爾也擴大了獎項的規模和範圍，它現在每年向學生和學校撥款160萬美元，而1998年它首次贊助時僅提供了20.7萬美元。
The Silicon Valley giant took over sponsorship of the award with great fanfare from Westinghouse, becoming only the second company to back the prize in its 73-year history. At the time it was seen as something of a passing of the torch in American industry, to a company then at the heart of the Information Age from one renowned for industrial work in things like nuclear power plants.
英特爾這家矽谷巨頭當初大張旗鼓地接替西屋公司(Westinghouse)，成為在該獎項73年的歷史內，為其提供贊助的第二家公司。當時在人們看來，這一舉動頗有些傳遞美國工業火炬的意味，獎項的讚助權從一家以核反應堆等工業項目聞名的公司，轉移到了另一家處於信息時代核心的公司。
Craig Barrett, a former chief executive of Intel, is even a member of the board of the Society for Science and the Public. He said he was “surprised and a little disappointed” by Intel's decision.
克雷格·貝瑞特(Craig Barrett)曾擔任英特爾首席執行官，他現在甚至還是科學與公眾協會董事。他說自己對英特爾的決定“感到驚訝，還有一絲失望”。
“It's such a premier event in terms of young people and technology,” Mr. Barrett said. “But they appear to be more interested in applied things, like” Maker Faire, an all-ages event that showcases homemade engineering projects.
“對年輕人和科技領域而言，這是一場極其重要的賽事，”貝瑞特說。“但是他們似乎對應用方向的東西更感興趣”，比如“制匯節”(Maker Faire)，這是一個面向各個年齡段的活動，展示家庭製作的工程項目。
Mr. Barrett said he had talked with Brian M. Krzanich, Intel's chief executive for the last two years, about the contest. Though Mr. Barrett thought it was inappropriate to aggressively lobby his old employer, he termed the annual cost “a rounding error ” against Intel's finances.
貝瑞特說，在過去的兩年裡，他一直和英特爾首席執行官布萊恩·M·科再奇(Brian M. Krzanich)談論這項競賽。雖然貝瑞特認為，過於積極地遊說自己的老東家有些不妥，但他稱資助比賽的年度開銷與英特爾的財務狀況相比，只相當於“舍入誤差”。
“My only comment to Brian was that we'd move forward,” said Mr. Barrett, who became Intel's chief executive in 1998 and retired as chairman of Intel's board in 2009. He now runs a chain of charter schools , called Basis, from Phoenix.
“我對布萊恩發表的唯一的評論是，我們得繼續前進，”貝瑞特說。他在1998年成為英特爾的首席執行官，2009年從英特爾董事長任上退休。現在，他經營著一家起步於菲尼克斯的連鎖特許學校，名為基礎學校(Basis)。
There is little indication that the contest has lost its prestige. Applications have held steady at around 1,800 a year for a decade. And in March, President Obama met with the Talent Search finalists at the White House.
沒有跡象表明這項競賽已經失去了影響力。申請人數十年來保持穩定，每年大約有1800人申請。今年3月，奧巴馬總統在白宮會見了科學獎決賽的入圍選手。
Gail Dudas, a spokeswoman for Intel, could not say why it was ending its support, but she said the company, which has struggled with a shift to mobile computing devices but is still one of the tech industry's most influential names, is “proud of its legacy” in supporting the award.
英特爾發言人蓋爾·杜達斯(Gail Dudas)沒有透露該公司為何停止贊助，但她表示，公司為資助該獎項的“傳統感到驕傲”。英特爾公司在向移動計算設備轉變的過程中陷於被動，但仍然是科技產業最有影響力的品牌之一。
The Science Talent Search is open to any student in the United School or its territories in his or her last year of secondary school. Independent individual research by thousands of students is narrowed down to 300 semifinalists. Of those, 40 finalists are chosen.
科學天才獎面向美國領土上所有的高中畢業班學生。一千多名提交獨立研究的學生，將被縮減至300名半決賽參賽者。然後選出40人參加決賽。
Previous finalists include Ray Kurzweil, a well-known author and director of engineering at Google, and Brian Greene, a best-selling science writer. Thomas Leighton, the chief executive of the Internet company Akamai, was a finalist and is now on the society's board.
此前的決賽選手包括知名作家、谷歌工程總監雷·庫日韋爾(Ray Kurzweil)，暢銷科普作家布賴恩·格林(Brian Greene)。互聯網公司Akamai首席執行官托馬斯·萊頓(Thomas Leighton)曾進入決賽，現在是科學與公眾協會的董事。
The finalists travel to Washington, where they present their work, meet government and private sector leaders and have their projects reviewed by a panel of judges. There were nine top awards in 2015, worth $35,000 to $150,000.
決賽選手前往華盛頓介紹自己的項目，與政府領導人及私營領域領袖會面，並由評審小組對其項目進行評估。2015年共有九人獲得最高獎項，獎金從3.5萬美元到15萬美元不等。
This year, Intel gave out three first prizes to highlight the variety of the research conducted. One student developed an algorithm to study adaptive mutations across the human genome. Another studied how phonons, the basic particles of sound, interact with electrons.
今年，英特爾頒發了三個一等獎，以突顯選手所做研究的多樣性。一名學生研發了一種研究人類基因組適應性突變的算法。另一名學生研究了聲子與電子之間的相互作用，聲子是聲音的基本粒子。
“They have been an excellent partner for almost 20 years, but their corporate priorities have changed,” said Maya Ajmera, president of the Society for Science and the Public.
科學與公眾協會會長瑪雅·阿傑米拉(Maya Ajmera)表示，英特爾“在將近20年的時間裡，都是非常好的合作夥伴。但該公司的關注點變了。”
To more recent winners, Intel may have received a benefit besides publicity — it got to teach the young stars more about Intel.
就最近獲獎的選手而言，英特爾可能除了得到宣傳之外，還得到了另一個好處——讓這些年輕的明星更了解英特爾。
“They showed us stuff they were doing with wearable technologies and machine learning,” a type of artificial intelligence, said Noah Gulwich, a freshman at Harvard. He shared this year's prize for his work in a branch of mathematics known as the Ramsey theory, which finds structure in complex systems. “I didn't know much about all the things Intel does before I went to Washington.”
“他們向我們展示了他們利用可穿戴技術和機器學習所做的東西，”哈佛大學新生諾亞·古爾維赫(Noah Gulwich)說，機器學習是一種人工智能。今年，古爾維赫憑藉對拉姆齊定理的一個分支的研究獲獎，拉姆齊定理髮現了複雜系統中的結構。“我在去華盛頓之前，不太了解英特爾所做的事情。”
Ms. Ajmera said her group would start looking for a new corporate sponsor on Wednesday. “We pride ourselves on recognizing thousands of leaders in science and technology and hope to keep doing so,” she said.
阿傑米拉表示，該協會將從周三開始尋找新的企業贊助商。她說，“我們表彰了科學和技術領域數以千計的領先人才，我們為此感到自豪，並希望能繼續下去。”
Other board members expressed confidence that national competition would produce another corporate sponsor.
董事會的其他成員充滿信心，認為這項全國性的競賽會獲得下一個企業贊助商。
Ms. Coleman was a finalist in 1961 for researching drug-resistant bacteria. First prize that year was awarded to a study of bowing in the courtship behavior of the male ring dove.
科爾曼在1961年憑藉對耐藥細菌的研究入圍決賽。一個研究雄性斑鳩求偶時彎腰動作的項目，在那一年獲得了第一名。
She said she was “very aware” that Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive of Google, is a Michigan graduate and that Google might be a candidate. “This isn't a huge amount of money for what it represents,” she said. “I assume another corporation will step up to this.”
她表示，她“非常清楚”，谷歌聯合創始人兼首席執行官拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)畢業於密歇根大學，而谷歌可能會是一個候選。“相對於這項競賽所體現的意義，這些錢並不算多，”她說。“我覺得會有下一家公司提供資助。”
Intel informed the group of its decision about 18 months ago, she said, and it will continue to support the award through 2017, in keeping with an earlier contract.
她表示，英特爾在大約18個月前向該協會通報了這個決定，英特爾將會遵守之前的合同，繼續資助比賽，直到2017年。
Intel will continue to support a separate talent search aimed at international student competition at least through 2019, which is Intel's contractual term, said Ms. Dudas, the Intel spokeswoman.
英特爾發言人杜達斯表示，根據英特爾的合同條款，英特爾會繼續資助另外一個搜尋人才的國際學生競賽，至少到2019年。
In addition to the Intel-sponsored prize, the society also runs a science and technology competition for middle school students, financed by the Broadcom Foundation. Although Broadcom, another semiconductor company, was bought this year, the Broadcom Foundation is independent and will continue to support the prize.
除了英特爾資助的獎項，該協會還開展了一項由博通基金會(Broadcom Foundation)資助的中學生科技競賽。雖然半導體企業博通公司在今年被收購，但博通基金會仍獨立運作，將會繼續資助該獎項。
“Intel's interests have changed,” said Ms. Coleman. “But we still think this is a very attractive prize to a number of corporations. It is still really important for the nation.”
“英特爾的興趣發生了變化，”科爾曼說。“但我們仍然覺得對於很多企業來說，這是一個非常有吸引力的獎項。這項競賽對這個國家仍然很重要。”
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