Intel on Friday handed out more than $3 million in scholarships and prizes to about 500 participants at its annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The students were culled from about 1 million high school students in 40 countries. The top prize, the company's Intel Foundation Young Scientist Scholarship, was awarded to three students from the United States.

Alexander Mittal of Greenwich, Conn., won for his "Nanoconstruction with Self-Assembling DNA-PNA Complexes" project, which Intel says has the potential to change the way chips are created. Naveen Sinha of Los Alamos, N.M., won for his physics project, "Bubble-based Resonance-Doppler Sensor for Liquid Characterization," which has applications as a sensor in industries such as medicine. Nina Vasan of Parkersburg, W. Va, also won for her "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: The Timing of Guidance in Visual Search" project, which investigated the effectiveness with which people learn using pictures. The students will each receive a $50,000 scholarship, a new PC, and a trip to see the Nobel Prize award ceremonies in Sweden this December, Intel said.