2021 Review on S.T. Yau High School Science Award (Asia)

The S.T. Yau High School Science Award (Asia) [ YHSA(Asia) ] is a research-based competition emphasising on innovation, originality, creativity and persistence in research activities.  It encourages students and teachers to formulate issues with quantitative precision and scientific rationales, with a view to nurturing students’ passion for scientific discovery, patience in investigation, and rigour in deliberation. YHSA(Asia) is initiated by Professor Shing-Tung Yau with the following goals:

1. To stimulate innovation, originality and creativity in scientific investigation among secondary school students in Asia. 

2. To cultivate young talents in science and technology. 

3. To encourage university professors, secondary school teachers and secondary schools to promote research activities. 

4. To facilitate cultural exchanges among secondary school students from a diverse cultural and educational background. 

5. To establish YHSA(Asia) as a reference for university admission.   

In 2019-2020 a total of 285 teams from 20 countries and regions joined YHSA(Asia), in which 17 teams (6 from Hong Kong, 6 from Singapore, 3 from India and 2 from Australia) were recommended to compete with other regional finalists in the YHSA Finale in Beijing and obtained excellent results. Students have gained invaluable learning and rewarding experiences from the Award competition.    

Recently, the 2020 Gold Prize awardee in Mathematics has been accepted for the highly competitive 2021 Research Science Institute (RSI) programme collaboratively sponsored with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).    

And the Departments of Economics and Mathematics of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have recognised YHSA(Asia) as exceptional achievement that merits admission to their respective undergraduate programmes.    

Very positive feedbacks on YHSA(Asia) have been received from the Faculty of Science of The University of Hong Kong and Department of Computer Science of City University of Hong Kong.

Joining the competition is free of charge! However, any expenses incurred from the participation thereafter will be borne by the participant, e.g., expenses on experiment, travelling, accommodation, etc.*

1. Form your team and register ……

• Each team shall consist of 1 to 3 student member(s) from the SAME secondary school.
• Each team shall have a supervising teacher^ providing guidance and advice for the research.
• A school may have more than one team participating in the competition and a supervising teacher may lead more than one team. However, a student can only be listed in ONE team in any subject category. That means it is possible for a student to participate in competition of multiple subject categories, but for each subject category the student can only be listed ONCE.
• When you are ready, click here to register. The deadline for registration is extended to 13 June 2021.
• After close of registration, change of team members is normally NOT allowed.
• To facilitate registration, a is provided for reference.

2. Start preparing for ……

• Research Outline : Each team shall submit a research outline (in English) by 13 June 2021.
• Research Report : Each shortlisted team shall submit a research report (in English) by 31 August 2021.
• Oral Defense : The oral defense (in English) will take place in late-October 2021.

3. Concurrent submission

Research reports that have been submitted concurrently with other competitions will NOT be accepted by YHSA(Asia). However, submission in the past, if declared as such in the research report, will be allowed. Concurrent submission or past submission without declaration, if found, will be subject to disqualification.

Submission of Research Outline

Research outline shall be submitted by 13 June 2021 to yauaward@ashk.org.hk. For file over 5MB, please instead send a download link to the above email address.

Format Requirement

• in English
• in PDF format (A4 size)
• not more than two pages
• margins set at a minimum of 2.5 cm
• line spacing should be 1.5 lines or double (except for quotations, footnotes, references, captions, which may be single-spaced)
• in one single file (zip your files if you have attachments) 
• file name must be “Registration Number-Research Outline”, e.g., “Math-001-Research Outline”
• download and use the research outline template

Content Requirement

(not more than two A4 pages)

• Name(s) of team member(s) and school, city, country
• Name of supervising teacher and his/her job title, school/institution, city, country
• Title of the project
• Abstract of the project
• Keywords
• References

To facilitate your preparation of the research outline, a research outline sample is provided for reference.

Submission of Research Report

Competition teams whose research outlines have been shortlisted to enter the second stage of the competition are required submit a research report (in English) by 31 August 2021 to yauaward@ashk.org.hk. For file over 5MB, please instead send a download link to the above email address.  

Format Requirement

• in English
• in PDF format (A4 size)
• margins set at a minimum of 2.5 cm
• line spacing should be 1.5 lines or double (except for quotations, footnotes, references, captions, which may be single-spaced)
• in one single file (zip your files if you have attachments) 
• file name must be “Registration Number-Research Report”, e.g., “Math-001-Research Report”
•  download and use the research report template

Content Requirement

• Cover page showing
  • Name(s) of team member(s) and school, city, country
  • Name of supervising teacher and his/her position, school/institution, city, country
  • Title of the report
• Content pages including 
  • Title of the report
  • Author(s)
  • Abstract (less than one page)
  • Keywords
  • Table of contents
  • Contents (e.g., introduction to research background & existing research, research materials & approaches, conclusion, discussions, etc.)
• References
  • References to existing research methods and conclusions must be indicated with clear citations.
  • Each team shall observe the common standard of academic integrity adopted by most journals or degree theses.
• Acknowledgement indicating
  • all the assistance and contribution you have received for the project.
• Commitments on academic honesty and integrity
  • All team member(s), including the Supervising Teacher and School Principal of all team member(s), shall sign on the page.
• Other supplementary documents as deemed applicable (e.g., experiment videos, relevant text/graphic materials, etc.)

  
  

To facilitate your preparation of the research report, a research report sample is provided for reference.

Remarks: 
*Given the scale, geographic division and limited resources of the Award, YHSA(Asia) does NOT foresee providing any financial support to any competition teams to participate in any of the events/activities in general. However, YHSA(Asia) may provide limited airfare support to students who reside in an Asian region other than Hong Kong, and have entered the third stage of assessment. The maximum level of support for different cities will be announced after the second stage of assessment. Students should buy their air tickets first, then claim for airfare reimbursement (subject to the maximum level of support announced) after the oral defense. 

^Hiring of services from profit-making training/education institution is NOT allowed. 

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