14-year-old Goleta student wins $3,500 in Nation’s Premier STEM competition

GOLETA, Calif. - A young Goleta student just won $3,500 in a nationwide STEM competition for his study on how lengthening consonants in similar sounding words affects the listener's understanding of the words.

14-year-old Eamon Gordon won the first-place mathematics award in the Broadcom MASTERS, the nation's premier middle school STEM competition.

Broadcam MASTERS is a competition owned and produced by the nonprofit organization Society for Science.

For his project, Eamon tested his hypothesis that longer Voice Onset Times (VOT) shift sound perceptions of consonants, changing the way words are heard.

The nonprofit explained that he slightly lengthened the consonants timing, which allowed his fellow students to change their understanding of the worlds.

Eamon was selected from a pool of nearly 1,841 students form 48 states, Washington, D.C. and three US territories (Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands).

He participated in a rigorous virtual competition that used project-based learning to test and demonstrate their master of skills like critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration in each of the STEM areas.

Eamon is also an avid distance runner who enjoys running everyday before school.

He said he hopes to become an economist one day and create a financial education course for middle and high school students.