Update: Here is  the playlist of videos of speakers at the Harker Research Symposium. Topics ranged from AI to VR/ML to rockets! Students who were finalists in various science contests presented their research and the panel discussion was an informational presentation of the scientific research opportunities at Harker, geared towards younger students who are considering pursuing research in the near future. Enjoy! 

Harker’s large community of science enthusiasts gathered at the upper school campus on April 15 for the 2017 Harker Research Symposium. Early arrivals packed the Nichols Hall auditorium for a talk by leading artificial intelligence expert Fei-Fei Li, who spoke about advancements in developing visual intelligence for computers. 

Attendees then filled the Nichols Hall atrium, examining the many corporate exhibits, from companies including Google, IBM, Xilinx, Nvidia and Titanium Falcon. They later made their way to the quad for the lunchtime chemistry magic show, staged by Andrew Irvine, who awed the crowd with several spectacular chemical reactions.

This year’s alumni speaker was Evan Maynard ’09, who now works at Blue Origin as a propulsion development engineer. Maynard discussed his current work in making spaceflight more affordable, as well as the development of reusable rockets.

Throughout the day, Harker students presented their work at breakout sessions, detailing research they had done in a variety of scientific fields, including astronomy, medicine and climatology. At the upper school gym, visitors listened attentively to the many middle school students who gave poster presentations.

The afternoon keynote was delivered by Achin Bhowmik, vice president and general manager of Intel’s perceptual computing group. His talk covered technological advancements that have enabled machines to more closely sense and interact with the world around them.

This year’s symposium also included three very special student talks by Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists Evani Radiya-Dixit, Arjun Subramaniam and Manan Shah, all grade 12. The students shared specifics of the research that earned them their impressive accolades.

Following their presentations, Radiya-Dixit, Subramaniam and Shah were part of a panel discussion that included science department chair Anita Chetty, physics teacher Chris Spenner, juniors Amy Jin and Rajiv Movva and senior Sandip Nirmel. The panelists discussed Harker’s many opportunities for science research, before bringing the event to a close.