36 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JULY 13, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
New game show from NYC native Judge Judy set to air
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
For fans of Brooklyn native television
icon Judge Judy, this game show will certainly
catch your eye.
Th e new television show “iWitness,”
created by Judge Judy Sheindlin, will air
on WWOR TV Channel 9 at 6:30 and
10:30 p.m. daily for six weeks beginning
July 10.
Each half-hour episode puts three contestants’
observational skills to the test.
Shown video clips and images, each contestant
must recall what they’ve just witnessed
before their competitors. In the
end, the remaining contestant will have a
chance to win a $20,000 grand prize.
“I’m so thrilled to embark on a new
adventure with such fabulous partners,”
Sheindlin said. “‘iWitness’ is a compelling
game for those from age 5 through 95.”
Th e fast-paced, family-friendly show is
hosted by comedian John Henson, known
for his stints on “Wipeout,” “Talk Soup”
and “My Name is Earl.”
“I think ‘iWitness’ will be a show that
viewers really connect with,” Henson
said. “It’s a lot of fun for viewers both to
watch and play along at home. I think it
has all of the components of a great game
show.”
Th e six-week limited summer test will
determine whether the show will launch
nationally in fall 2018. Scott St. John, who
has worked on “Match Game,” and “Deal
or No Deal,” will serve as showrunner.
Th e show is a collaboration between
FremantleMedia North America,
Debmar-Mercury and Sheindlin’s Queens
Bee Productions, which is also responsible
for the hit show “Hot Bench.”
“Judy’s phenomenal track record of
success in television and on the bench
has absolutely nothing to do with luck,”
Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort
Marcus and Ira Bernstein said. “She is
brilliant and has struck once again with
her latest ingenious concept — a highly
addictive and entertaining game show
format that we believe has strong potential
to live on for many years to come.”
Water microbe app makes Corona student a ‘Young Innovator to Watch’
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
Corona resident Sharon Lin is only 18,
but the Stuyvesant High School student
has accomplished more in her short life
than most.
On July 12, Lin will be one of thirteen
students from New York City to be awarded
the “Young Innovators to Watch”
award by CE Week, New York’s largest
technology show. Th is is the third year
that the competition has been hosted and
a panel of industry-expert judges chose to
honor fi ve “products of tomorrow” created
by middle school, high school and college
students under the age of 20.
Lin’s project, titled “White Water,” is
an app that identifi es bacteria and abiotic
particles in water based on a photo
sample. She became interested in water
quality aft er participating in the Science
Olympiad in middle school, where she
learned about a number of tests that can
identify water quality.
“I learned there were a number of diseases
that existed that were not too diffi -
cult to identity but oft en diffi cult to do so
in areas that were impoverished because of
a lack of resources,” she said.
Lin added that she wanted to create
something that people without access to
“expensive labs or extensive equipment or
chemicals needed to detect diseases” can
use. To create the app, she built a database
of particle photos that could be compared
to the photos that the user takes.
Th e app scans the photos of water for
visual parameters such as the size or number
of particles and compares them to
existing photos already in the database.
Th e app is not on the market because Lin
could not get enough access to a “robust”
number of particles to detect the variety of
microbial and abiotic particles responsible
for water-borne illnesses, but she hopes to
one day make it available to communities
that need it the most.
In a ceremony at the Metropolitan
Pavilion, Lin will receive a $1,000 scholarship
and prizes B&H Photo, Monster and
WowWee Toys.
Th is is the second time Lin has won an
award in the competition and was surprised
to learn that the judges, which
include executives at Cornell Tech,
Columbia Business School and Children’s
Technology Review, chose her project
again.
“It’s defi nitely a huge honor,” she said.
“I was defi nitely very surprised when I
heard the announcement. I didn’t think
they would choose me again to be recognized
for this achievement and I realize
the work I’m doing can make an impact
on other people and the win motivates
me to continue my research and solve
real-world problems.”
Her interest in computer science and
technology started in elementary school
when she fi rst started using a computer.
“It almost seemed magical at the time,”
she said. “I wasn’t really sure how the different
parts sort of connect together.”
Th ough she grew up in New Jersey, Lin
and her family moved to Corona when
she was 13 and she credits her experience
here to her growing interest in working on
“social good projects.”
“Growing up in Queens exposed me to
a lot more underprivileged communities
and that defi nitely made me more interested
in working on social good projects
that could actually infl uence my community
and allowed me to be more service
minded with my work,” she said.
Lin’s curiosity and desire to use her talents
to benefi t others has paid off , and
her resume is peppered with awards like
“White House Champion of Change
for Extracurricular Enrichment for
Marginalized Girls” and “Crain’s 20 under
20.” Lin also writes poetry and in 2016, she
was chosen as NYC’s Youth Poet Laureate.
She will attend MIT to major in electrical
engineering and computer science and
hopes to work on research and soft ware
development projects like “White Water”
in the future.
But before she goes back to school, Lin
will act as a teaching assistant for an introduction
to computer science course at
Columbia University; work on her chap
book, which is set to be published in
December; and conduct quantum computing
research for the University of
Waterloo in Canada.
“Th ey’re defi nitely proud of me, my parents,”
she said. “Neither of them work in
computer science, so they were defi nitely
surprised when I told them I wanted to
pursue this fi eld. “Th ey’re defi nitely supportive
and I appreciate everything they
do for me.”
Photo courtesy of Sharon Lin
Corona high school student Sharon Lin was named one of the “Young Innovators to Watch” by CE
Week.
Photos courtesy of Queens Bee Productions