High-tech phenom's next move: Harvard
May 06, 2012 (Menafn - The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --After you've won national and international contests, schooled military leaders in computer science, and taken the University of Central Florida's simulation center by storm, where do you go next? Harvard, of course.
That's 17-year-old phenom Neel Patel's next stop. His Ivy League plans come two months after the top-of-his-class graduate at Oviedo High School won sixth place in Intel Corp.'s prestigious Science Talent Search. And, oh, by the way, that netted him a 25,000 cash prize.
At UCF's Institute of Simulation and Training, where he was a dual-enrollment student and had performed research for the past couple of years, Neel was a force of nature, officials say.
"He is unlike any student I've ever known," said Darin E. Hughes, Neel's mentor and an associate researcher at the institute. "It is actually unfair to say he was in a mentoring program with us. He is so knowledgeable, so self-driven. He would have done fantastic anywhere he went."
Hughes recalled how the student researcher's impromptu talks wowed those attending the annual military-focused Orlando trade show known as the Interservice/Industry Simulation Training & Education Conference.
Focus on sonification
"They didn't even know who Neel was," Hughes said. "He just showed up there and, suddenly, he was giving in-depth presentations at this industry show. He is a unique talent."
Neel's focus is the study of sonification, or the use of non-speech sound patterns to communicate information. Think of that shredding-paper sound you hear when you delete items in your computer's recycle bin. Or a Geiger counter, which beeps differently as it detects varying levels of radiation.
Scientists are developing more advanced ways to use sound patterns, Hughes said. In military training, for example, it can provide critical war-game information to soldiers and pilots, improving their performance during training exercises, he said.
"One of the biggest issues in military training is sensory overload; there are so many scenarios soldiers have to process visually, it can be overwhelming," Hughes said. "Sound is a different channel of communication that can present information in a way that might otherwise be too difficult to understand visually."
The key is to develop software that can "crunch" a lot of data, such as distance or types of threat images, and translate them into sound patterns that people easily recognize, he said.
Data mapped as sound
One of Neel Patel's main projects at UCF was developing a basic model for translating bar charts and graphs into sound patterns. Neel "mapped" the charts' data using different aspects of sound (type, volume, tone); test subjects listened to the models and attempted to match them with the correct visual chart from a multiple-choice list.
UCF scientists said his work demonstrated that people can comprehend information through sound patterns as accurately as through visual images.
In addition to military training, sonification could be used in many other fields, including technology for the visually impaired and in health care, transportation, aerospace and meteorology.
"The art in research like this revolves around how well you map the data with sounds that people will really recognize and understand," Hughes said. "Of course, the military uses basic sonification already, with various forms of alerts or alarm systems. But our research aims to take it to the next level."
Last month, Neel received his latest honor -- first place in the annual Dr. Nelson Ying Science Competition hosted by the Orlando Science Center. He received a 5,000 scholarship as well as 1,000 awards for his science teacher and for Oviedo High School.
rburnett@tribune.com or 407-420-5256
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