The 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world’s largest pre-college science competition which annually brings together an estimated 1,600 young scientists from approximately 50 countries, took place at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center from May 10 to 15 this year. Coordinated since 1950 by Society for Science and the Public and hosted in Nevada by Gathering Genius, Inc., the Intel ISEF is the only international science fair representing all life sciences for high-school-level students, around 20% of whom have or will soon obtain patents on their innovative research. The Fair takes place in a different city of the United States every year. This year, it brought to Reno not only the bright young students and their families/supporters (nine of the finalists were Nevada locals), but a panel of Nobel laureates, around a thousand experts in the various scientific fields to serve as judges, a superb production team from around the country, and the international press. The success and smoothness of the Intel ISEF would not be possible, however, without the countless volunteers who every year are recruited locally or travel with the Fair, and it would especially be impossible without the many translators and interpreters who lend their skills to facilitate communication across the language barrier. The Language Bank of the Northern Nevada International Center (NNIC), which provides translation and interpretation[*] services in 62 languages throughout the Northern Nevada and California regions, is pleased and proud to have been able to contribute to this crucial aspect of the 2009 Intel ISEF.

Several of the NNIC’s over 300 interpreters volunteered their time on the showroom floor interpreting between finalists, judges, and the public in various languages. Although the project exhibits were all required to be in English, many of the young scientists had had them translated in their home countries and did not actually have a command of the English language themselves. Added to the challenges of cross-linguistic communication was the challenge of highly-specialized vocabulary in all branches of mathematics, engineering, and science – terms that the majority of native speakers of any language have no reason to know or use on a daily basis, making the job of the interpreter that much more demanding.

Outside of the exhibit hall, in the grand hall, three interpreters working in booths and speaking into microphones handled the simultaneous interpretation of the three major events: the Grand Opening Ceremony, the Nobel Laureate Question-and-Answer Panel, and the Grand Awards Ceremony. Each of the three interpreters – one in Russian, one in Spanish, and one in Mandarin Chinese – transmitted on a specific channel that was picked up by pre-tuned headsets provided to speakers of each language. For these interpreters, surely the most demanding moment in the entire week was the thirty-minute keynote speech delivered on opening night by Tejinder “Jim” Virdee, particle physicist and professor of physics at Imperial College, London, and scientific associate at the Physics Department, CERN. Professor Virdee spoke about the Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration (CMS, of which he is a founding member) operating at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. It is believed that results from this research will provide insight into physics beyond the Standard Model and change our perception of nature.

Feedback from participants and community members alike, as well as local and international press coverage, was overwhelmingly positive and the 2009 Intel ISEF will without a doubt live on in the young finalists’ and winners’ memories as an event never to be paralleled in their lives. Its inspiration will certainly live on in our community. The Northern Nevada International Center hopes to continue to be a part of this worthy endeavor when and if it should pass by “The Biggest Little City in the World” again.

– Jessica Escobar, Spanish/French interpreter and translator, NNIC Language Bank

[*]An interpreter differs from a translator in that the job of interpreting is always “live” and oral (even “sight-translation,” which is the out-loud translation of a written document), whereas a translator deals with written texts and has at his/her disposal dictionaries and sometimes even specialized translation software. What quality translation has of painstaking, quality interpretation has of thinking-on-one’s-feet. Be it consecutive interpretation (in which the interpreter translates each statement after the speaker) or simultaneous (in which the interpreter translates the speaker’s statements as they are being said), interpretation requires a great deal of mental agility, total concentration, and an excellent grasp of both languages involved. Speaking two or more languages fluently does not automatically give an individual the particular skills needed to be a good interpreter.

Posted: Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 8:00 am. Filed under: Language Services, News & Announcements.
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