Corrosion earns gold for Kern duo

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Nicholas Okita and Edith Teng were ready for the questions that would come their way during intense judging at the California Science Fair.

A hypothesis about corrosion had a golden outcome for Stockdale High School students Nicholas Okita and Edith Teng who became the school’s first-ever Science Fair state champions and the only two from Kern County to earn gold medals at the annual event held at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on May 20. It was quite an achievement for Okita and Teng as 953 of the best science students from 359 schools throughout the State met in competition for awards totaling over $50,000. Okita, who will be a senior in the fall, had a lot to smile about as he received his medal.

"This was my fifth year making it to the state finals, and I was really, really shocked to win," Okita said. "You have no idea what it takes to get this far."

Equally shocked was Teng because this was and will be her only entry in the competition. Teng moves onto Rice University in the fall where she plans to carry a Biology and Pre-Med double major.

"What got me interested was the idea of exploring something I had never been exposed to," Teng said. "We discovered some really unexpected conclusions that even kind of shocked the experts. That made it as much fun as winning."

What scientific adventure did the two embark on that resulted in winning the gold — a project called, "The Effect of Steel Exposure on Corrosion Rates in the Oil Field Environment." Their research was doubly satisfying. It earned the $500 first place cash award in the Chemistry Division, plus, the two split another $300 for being recipients of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (Los Angeles Basin) Superior Technical Achievement Award.

Basically, the two set out to prove metallic oilfield equipment coated with an epoxy spray paint would be least resistant to corrosion and pitting than exposed or partly-coated equipment. They were surprised to find out just the opposite. "Under-deposit" corrosion actually occurred between the protective coating and the surface and at a faster rate than the non-coated metal.

"We were not discouraged by our findings at all," Teng said. "In fact, our research proves that a bad coating is ineffective and can be more harmful to equipment. The emphasis has to be on finding a really good coating to protect against the fast progression of corrosion.

Okita felt as though he and Teng had performed a service for both the oil industry and the public at large.

"Corrosion in pipelines leads to leaking oil which is bad for the environment, and it is also a waste of energy. Just looking at the price of gas today, you know how important that is," Okita said.

Okita plans to apply his theories to real life situations in the future. After graduation from high school next year, it will be off to college to pursue a career as a mechanical or chemical engineer.

Okita and Teng were not the only ones basking in the joy of winning at the state level. Their coach, Stockdale High Physics teacher Gabriela Scully said she screamed when she heard their names announced.

"Do you realize what they put into this project — months and months and months of trials and research," Scully said. "Their understanding of the subject was fantastic and the results remarkable. Their work will be held up as the gold standard for those that follow them at Stockdale next year, and I think it will promote even more interest in math and the sciences, which is what is really important."

Kern County had its share of medalists. In addition to Okita and Teng, Warren Jr. High student Shalin Shah earned second place in the Aerodynamics/Hydrodynamics field. Mathew Austin from Heritage Academy received a third place medal in Zoology. Fourth place awards went to El Tejon Middle School’s Joshua Arreola and Desert High’s Tarah Franklin and Kaitlyn Kennett. Fifth place award winners included North High’s Matthew Bowen and Sam Munoz, Warren Jr. High’s Navdeep Dhaliwal, Stockdale High’s Elizabeth Koo, St. Ann School’s Leah Ostermann and Williams School’s Maximillian Wolfe.

All of the local student finalists became eligible to compete at the California Science Fair after winning in their entry categories among the approximately 600 students who competed in the April 2 Kern County Science Fair, administered by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office.


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