The award
The Society for Science lists Ticea among the 2015 top winners with a $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award. Her project title states the specification in full: 'Low-Cost Disposable Device for Point-of-Care Nucleic Acid Testing of HIV: Sample-to-Answer in 60 Minutes for Less than $5.00'.
That is an unusually concrete title for a science fair entry. It names a price, a turnaround time and a test format, which makes the claim checkable in a way that most project titles are not.
Why nucleic acid testing matters
Most inexpensive HIV tests detect antibodies, which the body takes weeks to produce, leaving a window in which an infected person tests negative. Nucleic acid testing looks for the virus's genetic material instead, and can therefore detect infection earlier — but the equipment it normally requires is laboratory-bound and expensive.
The design goal in Ticea's title is to move that capability to the point of care: disposable, under $5, an answer within the hour. The source publishes no technical detail, so this page makes no claim about the chemistry, the sensitivity or any validation of the device.
The 2015 fair
Intel ISEF 2015 ran from 10 to 15 May at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, with approximately 1,700 young scientists drawn from 422 affiliated fairs in more than 75 countries.
About 600 finalists received awards, among them 20 Best of Category winners at $5,000 each, with $1,000 grants to their schools and affiliated fairs. The three top awards sit above that layer.
A Vancouver sweep
The Gordon E. Moore Award of $75,000 went to Raymond Wang, 17, also of Vancouver, for 'Aircraft Cabin Airflow: Curbing Disease Transmission'. Two of the three 2015 top awards therefore went to students from the same city.
The second $50,000 award went to Karan Jerath, 18, of Friendswood, Texas, for the numerical simulation of an in-situ subsea separator for oil spill remediation. Diagnostics, cabin airflow and offshore engineering shared the top table.
What is documented — and what is not
The listing gives her name, age, home city, the award, its value and the full project title. It names no school, no mentor, no laboratory and no clinical collaborator, and it publishes no abstract.
It also stops at the fair. No source used here reports whether the device was developed further, tested clinically, patented or commercialised, or where Ticea studied afterwards. Her birth year is inferred from being 16 in May 2015 and is approximate.
Reading a diagnostic claim honestly
A price and a turnaround time on a project title describe a design target achieved in a student's hands, not a product cleared by a regulator. Diagnostics reach patients only after clinical validation, manufacturing and approval, none of which is documented here.
What the record does establish is that a panel of doctorate-level judges at the world's largest pre-college science fair ranked the work among the three best of roughly 1,700 entries, and that the specification in the title was what they were shown.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finola Hackett | Canada | Runner-up at the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee | Age 14 |
| Nicole Ticea | Canada | $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at Intel ISEF 2015 | Age 16 |
| Nelson Sexton | Canada | Creating the Steam survival game Unturned at 16 | Age 16 |
| Raymond Wang | Canada | At 17 he redesigned the air inside an aeroplane cabin, and won the fair's | Age 17 |
| Ayla Tesler-Mabé | Canada | Viral guitar covers; Fender endorsee | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at Intel ISEF 2015 at 16 (Society for Science)
- Project title specifies a disposable HIV nucleic acid test: sample to answer in 60 minutes for under $5.00
- From Vancouver, Canada
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No abstract, chemistry or validation data published in the source
- No school, mentor, laboratory or clinical partner named
- No information on development, approval or commercialisation after 2015
Questions people ask about Nicole Ticea
How old was Nicole Ticea when she won?
Sixteen, in May 2015. No date of birth appears in the source used here.
What did her device do?
It was a low-cost disposable device for point-of-care nucleic acid testing of HIV, designed to give a result in 60 minutes for less than $5.
Why is nucleic acid testing significant?
It detects the virus's genetic material rather than antibodies, so it can identify infection earlier than antibody tests.
How much did she win?
$50,000, one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards at Intel ISEF 2015.
Is the test available to patients?
Nothing in the source used here documents clinical validation, regulatory approval or commercial release.
Where is Nicole Ticea now?
No source used here reports on her studies or work after 2015.
Is Nicole Ticea on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on her was confirmed for this entry.
Who won the top prize that year?
Raymond Wang, 17, also of Vancouver, for work on aircraft cabin airflow and disease transmission.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Nicole’s story?
How long did Nicole Ticea's HIV test take to give a result?
What was the target cost?
Which city did both she and the 2015 top-prize winner come from?
Sources
- Intel ISEF 2015 (top award winners) — Society for Science
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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