Nothing random about Ella’s Seeds
ASHEVILLE — Ella Hoffert’s awards and prizes are hardly random.
Yet, they are all about randomness.
The Asheville Catholic eighth-grader’s math project won school, regional, state and special honors at the N.C. State Science fair, and she has made it through the first round of a national competition.
Asheville Catholic School eighth-grader Ella Hoffert stands in front of her display board for her multiple award-winning science fair project, “Data Seeds.” (Photo provided by Lisa Vigue)
The project was called “Data Seeds.” She tested whether certain programs were actually producing randomly distributed numbers.
Random numbers are important in statistical analysis, probability theory, computer simulations, digital cryptography and cryptocurrency.
Ella got the idea when she was doing last year’s science project, the classic “Three Doors” problem. Like the old “Let’s Make A Deal” gameshow with Monty Hall, it tests how successful a random sample of people would be at getting the big prize on a second guess after getting the “goat” prize on the first door.
She said it didn’t look like the numbers she was using to test the assumption were truly random.
“They should have been a couple of tenths off, but they were whole integers off.”
That project won school, regional and state competitions for the then seventh-grader.
So, this year, she got sets of “random” numbers from three programs, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets and Apple Numbers, to test their actual randomness.
She wasn’t rating the programs against each other, but she said Excel was the most functional. Google produced the worst sample. Apple produced the best random numbers, but she actually had to enter its results into Excel to score their randomness.
According to the N.C. Science & Engineering Fair website, 417 students advanced to the state competition from nine regional fairs and one virtual regional fair done as a pilot program.
The 2023 North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair was held at N.C. State University on March 25.
In her age group, Ella’s project won the Association of Women in Science award and the U.S. Air Force Award, and she got first place in mathematics, statistics and data science.
“You getting tired of walking up here, Ella?” asked the moderator, Dr. Alonzo Alexander, an N.C. State professor.
Those honors came with awards including a $50 gift card or $100.
Ella was then brought up as one of 16 state recipients of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.
Being one of those 16 allows her to enter the national competition, competing with winners from 300 fairs across the country.
Ella’s entry has already made a further cut, so she is one of 30 finalists who get an all-expenses-paid trip to Houston to compete at the national final event, which has more than $100,000 in prizes, with a top prize of $25,000.
Her entry looks like many science fair entries, with data displayed on a folding board. It represents a lot of data entry and testing in the computer to show her results. She’ll be bringing her board to Houston.
It’s no surprise, when asked, that she says her favorite subject is science.
But she says she particularly likes it as it is done at Asheville Catholic School.
Her class this year, eighth-grade science, is an “integrated” mix of earth, life and physical sciences, said her science teacher, Tracy Landschoot.
The class is “hands on with a lot of labs. The labs are fun,” Ella said.
Right now she thinks she would like to maybe become a chemical engineer or a pilot for the U.S. Air Force, like her father.
“I want to fly an F-22,” she said.
Her father is supportive, she says, but he is quizzing her a lot to be certain that is indeed what she wants to do. It’s a commitment of more than 20 years, particularly if she goes to the Air Force Academy.
She said a little prayer to God after she won the N.C. fair.
“To thank Him,” she said. “For giving me my mind and for giving me a great school.”
— Stephen Guilfoyle
About Ella Hoffert
Age: 14
School: Eighth grade, Asheville Catholic School
Class: Science
Teacher: Tracy Landschoot
Hoffert’s family: Parents Stephen and Shawna, one older brother, one younger sister
Parish: St. Eugene
See video of Ella’s award presentation
Note: Ella’s awards can be seen at 12:23, 19:45, 32:25, and 41:58 minute marks