Students (and parents) know the drill: cool ideas, posterboards, diagrams, prep for questions, hours of work.

The Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair bubbles up — for the 50th time — today at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

Hawai'i's Super Bowl of science, many of whose players have gone on to have outstanding careers, kicks off with an impressive list of topics ranging from the Ala Wai Canal as possible source of bacteria power to the origins of star formation.

"There are definite trends," said Chris Trusty, director of the State Science Fair and program manager for the Hawaii Academy of Science, which organizes the event. "In the 1970s and '80s, there was an oil embargo and the students were interested in alternative fuels. Iris Terashima won first place in 1981 with her project Sugarcane Juice: Material for the Efficient Production of Ethanol as an Alternate Energy Source. ... (This is a topic) that has come full circle."

Locally, coqui frogs get a lot of (unwanted, if you're a frog) attention. And the quantum leap in technology is clear. The 1979 project A Computer Maze Solver becomes Robotic Vision: a Mutual Entropy-Based Algorithm through Scene Recognition from Image Sequences for Terrestrial and Planetary Exploration in 2007. Tricky stuff.

The science might be complex, but science fair goals are simple.

"By completing a science fair project, a student gains practical and hands-on experience in the scientific method ... and skills beyond science," Trusty said. "Research, public speaking, the ability to present ideas clearly and concisely are skills that will serve them all their lives."

Oral presentation is often the biggest hurdle. Students know they have to parry the judges' questions with convincing answers.

Winners are awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to represent Hawai'i at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Albuquerque, N.M., in May. Junior Division winners will go to Washington, D.C., to enter the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

The stakes are high: Representing Hawai'i on the Mainland can be the portal to a future bright with opportunities and the chance to shine in a community where science is anything but nerdy.

At the Mainland ISEF, particularly, Hawai'i students are known for excellence, winning many awards and scholarships, Trusty said. It's a reputation the Academy wants to maintain despite a current funding crisis.

"We've sponsored the state fair for 50 years," Trusty said. "For Hawai'i students, entry is free but most states charge a fee; New York, for example, charges $130 for each project. To continue free entry, the Hawaii Academy of Science would like to establish an endowment fund and find a brand-name sponsor, like Intel (which sponsors the International Science and Engineering Fair), to pay the operating expenses each year."

For Hawai'i's smart young scientists, a welcome breakthrough, indeed.

Reach Chris Oliver at coliver@honoluluadvertiser.com.