Google Sponsors Online Science Fair, Hopes to Find Next Larry & Sergey

Can Google help find the next Larry Page and Sergey Brin? In partnership with CERN, Lego, National Geographic and Scientific American, Google has launched the Google Global Science Fair. It’s open to students around the world who are between the ages of 13-18 who have access to a computer, the Internet and a web browser.

Here's an explanation of how it works from Google Education Product Marketing Managers, Cristin Frodella and Samantha Peter:

"You may have participated in local or regional science fairs where you had to be in the same physical space to compete with kids in your area. Now any student with an idea can participate from anywhere, and share their idea with the world. You build and submit your project—either by yourself or in a team of up to three—entirely online. Students in India (or Israel or Ireland) will be able to compete with students in Canada (or Cambodia or Costa Rica) for prizes including once-in-a-lifetime experiences (like a trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer), scholarships and real-life work opportunities (like a five-day trip to CERN in Switzerland). And if you’re entering a science fair locally, please feel free to post that project online with Google Science Fair, too!"

The semi-finalist projects will be posted on Google's online gallery, where the public will have a chance to vote for the “people’s choice” winner. From our list of semi-finalists, we’ll select 15 finalists to bring their projects to Google headquarters on July 11 to compete in our final, live (and presumable webcast) event, where world-renowned science judges will select a winner in each age category, as well as a grand-prize winner.

Participants can register here up until April 4th, 2011.