Durham student state winner in Google Doodle contest

DURHAM, Conn. (WTNH) -- A ninth grader from Coginchaug Regional High School in Durham is in the running to win a nationwide Google Doodle contest.

Cory Hassmann is one of 250 finalists in the company's annual Doodle 4 Google competition.

If you're not familiar with Google Doodles, they are the graphic that appears on Google's home page to mark an event, like Earth Day , or to honor a historical figure or event, such as the man who invented the zipper .

More than 114,000 students entered this year's contest, which featured the theme "If I could travel in time, I'd visit..."

Hassmann's doodle shows a typewriter, a clock, a phonograph and a factory. He picked the era of the U.S. industrial revolution, "because it was a time of prosperity and renewal for the nation's economy and its population. The new found inventions and machinery replaced manual labor with more efficient and sped up production sparking the dawn of a new age. "

Hassmann's entry and the other state winners can be seen at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html . Public voting runs though May 10 to pick the five finalists. From there, Google will pick the winning design.

The winning students will get a $30,000 scholarship, and his or her school will receive a $50,000 technology grant. The winner will also have their doodle on Google on May 18.