Pisay student wins 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge

C.J. Palpal-latoc

Last edited and updated: 7:15 AM, December 8

Hillary Andales accepts the torus trophy at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony. She is the first Filipina to win the Challenge. Photo courtesy of the Breakthrough Prize

Pisay student Hillary Diane Andales won the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge on Monday, December 4, besting more than 11,000 students from 177 countries who participated in the competition.

In her entry Relativity & The Equivalence of Reference Frames, Andales explained how observers can perceive different sound, light and time based on their reference frame.

Her submission won her a total of about 20.3M pesos, including 12.7M pesos worth of scholarship, an award of 2.5M pesos for the teacher who inspired her and a science lab worth 5.1M pesos for her school.

Andales explains relativity and reference frames.

Andales thanked the scientists “who inspired [her] with their genius and tenacity to pursue the truth.” She hopes that the award will “inspire more young people, especially [her] dear Filipinos, to look up and become scientists themselves.”

This is the second time that Andales joined the global science video competition. She was the Top Scorer in the Popular Vote for her first entry last year.

The Breakthrough Prize ceremony was held at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.