65th Annual STS (2005-2006)
Finalists
Elyse Autumn Hope

OREGON
Elyse Autumn Hope, 18, of Portland, compared the movements of sunspots and magnetic regions to forecast their relative rates for her Intel Science Talent Search project in space science. Elyse's two-year project was designed to prove the theory that sunspots and magnetic regions are basically the same phenomena. Using three years of images - intensitygrams and magnetograms - from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, she measured the average distance from the sun's center to each feature's center in order to calculate arc length and entered the data into a Java program to automate the calculations and perform a regression analysis to forecast movements. She believes her findings statistically and conclusively confirm the theory and plans to expand her research to add predictive capabilities, which she thinks could be used to help overcome solar disruptions to vital communications and satellite activity. Elyse attends Oregon Episcopal School where she is editor of the weekly newspaper, The Blowfish. A dancer, pianist and vocalist with an interest in opera, she hopes to study music and physics at Stanford or Whitman College. Elyse is the daughter of Paul McClain and Laura Hope.