As the regional champion, this team will receive the Hitachi Scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. April 25 to 29 to compete at the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl and to represent the City of Los Angeles. The trip is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.  North Hollywood HIgh School will compete in a field of 68 regional high school championship teams from 40 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  A total of 10 teams from California will participate.

Previous LADWP regional winning teams have among the best records at the National Science Bowl, having captured four national titles and placed among the top five teams 11 times. Last year, North Hollywood High School placed second at the National Science Bowl.

This year, Harvard-Westlake School, Studio City, also gave an impressive performance in placing second.  The third place winner was Pacific Palisades Charter High School, while Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda placed fourth.

Students also showed skill and problem solving abilities in the special First Wind Hands-On Competition.  In recognition of 2013 as the Los Angeles Aqueduct Centennial celebration, this year’s competition involved constructing a sailboat and racing it in the “Mulholland Regatta,” on a water-filled “aqueduct” track.

Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls Catholic school in the Los Feliz area was the recipient of the first place Franklin Lu Hands-On Trophy, presented in memory of the late LADWP engineer and Science Bowl volunteer. Team members received a $250 scholarship. The second place scholarship award was presented to Holy Martyrs High School, an Armenian parochial school in Encino. Third and fourth place scholarships were awarded to Wilson High School Team A, in Boyle Heights and Marshall High School, in the Los Feliz area, respectively. First Wind funded all the scholarships in the hands-on competition.

Science Bowl is a proud LADWP tradition and excellent example of the Department’s commitment to the Los Angeles educational community.  Each year, the LADWP Science Bowl tests the region’s sharpest students’ reflexes, teamwork skills and knowledge in a fun competitive atmosphere following a television game show format.  LADWP is one of only a few utilities in the nation to serve as a coordinating regional sponsor and host.

In addition to LADWP, sponsors for this year’s Science Bowl included, First Wind, the Hitachi Southern California Regional Community Action Committee, the Hitachi Foundation, IEEE’s Power and Energy Society Metro LA Chapter, IEEE’s Industry Applications Society, the Water and Power Community Credit Union, Gelson’s Markets, Office Depot, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Energy. Also, the Los Angeles Dodgers are providing tickets to an upcoming game for program participants.

The event was also made possible through the efforts of 100 volunteers comprised mainly of LADWP employees, their famililes, and past Science Bowl participants from the LADWP Science Bowl and other regions.

The National Science Bowl is the nation’s largest high school science-based academic competition and the only one sponsored by a federal agency. Since it’s inception in 1991 more than 225,000 students have participated in the program.

The LADWP is the nation’s largest municipally-owned utility in the nation with 1.4 million customers. It has provided utility services to residents and businesses in Los Angeles for more than 100 years.

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