I believe she is from Massachusetts according to some posts I saw on FB. Just a guess though, all the the profiles that are connected are private.
And I do believe that the most votes automatically wins. Certainly as the current 2nd place contestant, it is disappointing from an emotional perspective. This contest is not just a neat thing to put on my bench - it will be a big boost to my ability to provide for my family. I have taken a lot of risks and put in double the hours of most people to live my little dreams. My transition into EE was the biggest risk yet and predictably, was a huge financial strain. I have been able to get pretty far with eBay leftovers, but this 6000x would be a portal to all new opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach - at least for many years. I was surprised that Keysight was giving away such a valuable prize but even more surprised how well of a fit it is for the road I am paving. I was even more excited when I read that they were asking entrants to make an appeal for why they deserve to win.
But looking at it from further away it is kind of sad that it is nothing more than a social prowess exercise. When I decided to make the video, I spent a considerable amount of time to make an appeal that was appropriate to the prize - making sure it was clear the this particular model would be fully utilized and not wasted. As for my friends and family that are voting - I could have made a video of cars driving down the freeway or maybe instructions on how to make pasta. They would still vote, but engineers would never vote for someone that did not present a reasonable case. That is what I thought I was getting into, an engineering contest.
Now I find myself in a social media race with a young student (with all the time in the world), and a school that, like my family and friends, would vote for a 'how to make pasta' video. On top of that, there is no known mechanism that prevents 10 students from making 100 FB profiles each and metering out votes as needed. If that were the case, I don't stand a chance. My whole weekend was spent creating a vote campaign, but during the week, I have to make a living. There is no way I can campaign for votes full time which is what appears to be needed just to be close.
I will, of course, continue to push for votes as much as I am able but in the end, I am only an observer and I personally put in my 3 votes per day. It would be nice if the other voters were engineers or electronics hobbyists. My entry would have a better chance if that were the case.
Onward and upward.......it could turn around.