Once notified they'd made it to the regionals, seniors George Chen, Frank Chuang and Victor Shia had less than a week to cobble together a presentation of their research project for the 2005-2006 Siemens Westinghouse math and science competition.

The regional competition was intense, too.

They were given 12 minutes to present their project and then faced the judges in a 12-minute intensive question and answer period.

Though they didn't go on to the nationals, the Monta Vista students each earned $1,000 scholarships for their research efforts and for their computer program, Paladin, which is a new encryption algorithm for protecting sensitive data. They talk about marketing their program but say it needs a few tweaks before it's ready.

None of the three plans to study computer science in college, but are looking to careers in engineering. George Chen wants to study optical engineering; Victor Shia plans to study electrical engineering, and Frank Chuang mechanical engineering.

The students decided in May to enter the competition but initially could only come up with high-budget projects. Then George came up with the idea of creating a "fast and secure symmetric block software," and best of all, it wouldn't require a lot of money.

"It was low budget. All we needed was a library, books and a computer," George said.

They began intensive research in July, hoping to meet the competition's early October entry deadline. At the end of October, they learned that their project had made it to the regional finals. The all-expenses-paid competition was held at University of California Berkeley. There the Monta Vista group competed against three other teams from the Western region.

Monta Vista--and each high school that had a regional finalist--received a $2,000 award per project to be used to support science, mathematics and technology programs in the schools.

The Siemens Foundation sponsors the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology and provides more than $2 million in college scholarships and awards each year for high school students in the United States. The Western regional competition's winning team this year came from Troy High School in Fullerton. That team goes on to the national competition, which will be held in New York in December, and will earn the winners scholarships from $10,000 to $100,000.