Student, 12, wins $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize prize for optical illusion project

Typical school science fair projects include a soda volcano, graphite circuit or a potato battery, but one 12-year-old from New York went beyond with a project that uses an optical illusion to understand our cognitive process. Ishana Kumar, from Chappaqua, submitted the project - called Color Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Retinal Fatigue on Imaginary Fechner Colors –for this year's Society for Science and Public's Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars). Kumar was awarded the Samueli Foundation Prize for her research, as well leadership, collaboration and critical thinking skills – all of which earned her a prize of $25,000. Her project investigated whether retinal fatigue changes our perception of'imaginary colors,' an illusion of color most commonly seen from a spinning black and white disk, called a Benham's disk. Ishana Kumar, from Chappaqua, submitted the project - called Color Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Retinal Fatigue on Imaginary Fechner Colors –for this year's Society for Science and Public's Broadcom MASTERS) 'When they called my name I was in complete disbelief,' Kumar said after hearing the results.