Matthew Siracusa, 13, of Newtown Square, Pa., did what few politicians are willing to do — he took on the natural gas industry, and received recognition from Google as a result.

"It is inevitable that humankind will continue to consume resources until forced to leverage renewable resources" — Matthew Siracusa

The Devon Preparatory School 9th-grader was a finalist in his age group and local award winner for Google’s International Science Fair. In “A Method for Mobile Study of Fracking Sites,” Siracusa worked to solve the expensive methods of monitoring how hydraulic fracturing (fracking) affects local environments. The student designed an apparatus and software to measure carbon dioxide levels and radiation levels, among others, from a moving vehicle. He measured increased radiation that matched similar research.

Siracusa loves robots, jamming out on his instruments and computer programming. In his project submission, he said that he wants to pursue a career in science and engineering.

Since 2011, 13 to 18 year olds have submitted projects to Google’s global science fair, competing for prizes and scholarships sponsored by National Geographic Expeditions, Virgin Galactic, Lego Education and other partners. Global winners and their projects from this year include three Irish girls — Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thaw — who developed bacteria to help grow crops and combat global poverty; Canadian Hayley Todesco who cleaned up oil sands waste; American Mihir Garimella who made flying robots inspired by fruit flies; American Kenneth Shinozuka who invented cheap sensors to detect patients’ movement; and India’s Arsh Dilbagi who founded technology that could turn breath into speech for those with disabilities.