CTV National: Winnipeg teenager finishes second in international competition

A Grade 11 student at Winnipeg’s Vincent Massey Collegiate is helping put the city on the map after she became one of the best in the world when it comes to neuroscience.

Lisa Wei took part in the International Brain Bee, a competition that tests high school students’ knowledge of neuroscience. More than 3,000 students from 40 countries engaged in the battle of the brains, and Wei came second in the world.

“I felt mostly surprised by the result,” Wei told CTV News in an interview. “To be honest, it took me roughly 20 seconds to actually process the whole information.

“It was not expected at all.”

Wei said the competition focuses on facts about the brain, ranging from basic functions to higher function levels like emotions and memory. When it came to the test and live judging, Wei and her Australian competitor answered the questions about the brain so flawlessly, they ran out of questions to ask them.

The secret to her success? A lot of studying.

“I spent my summer months learning it, setting goals … and I spent the rest of September to pretty much review the sections I read during the summer,” she said.

Wei worked with Dr. Robert Beattie, a professor in the University of Manitoba’s College of Medicine.

To watch the full story you can view it here, if you want to read the web article written by CTV Winnipeg, you will find it here.