More than 1,400 elementary, middle and high school students will be putting their mental prowess to the test on Saturday, Feb. 23, when they take part in the 16th annual Los Angeles County Science Olympiad at Cal State Northridge.

Teams of students representing nearly 100 schools from throughout Los Angeles County will be put through a myriad of mental challenges testing their knowledge in all areas of science and engineering.

"The Science Olympiad is a key event that stimulates the curiosity and inventiveness of thousands of students," said CSUN biology professor Steven Oppenheimer, a coordinator of the event. "The future of the United States depends on producing scientists who are the most inventive in the world. The Olympiad can be a key early factor in encouraging someone to grow up and be one of those scientists."

The contest begins at 8:30 a.m. and will continue throughout the day in CSUN's science buildings near the center of campus along Lindley Avenue.

Among the fields of competition in this Olympics are cell biology, the web, structural engineering, astrophysics and mathematics.

Some students will be asked to design and build a battery-powered vehicle that will then have to navigate an obstacle course. Others will be asked to design and build the lightest bridge capable of supporting a given load, using only wood and glue.

Still other students will have to create rockets out of 1- and 2-liter plastic soda bottles that must remain aloft for a maximum period of time. And still more will be asked to design and build a container that will prevent a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a specific height.

In one competition, robots built by the students will face off in a contest that tests just how agile the creations are.

On hand to help the young people throughout the day will be dozens of CSUN students from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Science and Mathematics.

California State University, Northridge has more than 31,000 full- and part-time students and offers 59 bachelor's and 41 master's degrees. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."