Last month, at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, nearly 70 Harker middle and upper school students received awards, including a Grand Prize for junior Disha Gupta, which earned her a trip to the California Science and Engineering Fair. The full list of winners is found below.
Middle School
Student |
Award |
Title |
Gr |
|
Rebecca |
Ding |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
What is the effect of manuka honey on redworm respiration rates? (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Aila XiYi |
El-Charif |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Different Types of Tea and Coffee on the Nervous System of Planarian Worms (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Sarafina |
Fung |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
What is the effect of manuka honey on redworm respiration rates? (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Selena |
Ghane |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Creating durable, biodegradable packaging using mycelium from different mushroom species (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Rohan |
Kaushal |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Bioremediation of Different Polyethylene Plastic Bags by Bacillus megaterium (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Aarav |
Kumar |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Mycoremediation of Plastics by Mushroom Species (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Zooey Shan |
Lan |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
A Novel AI Approach to Analyze the Cardiovascular Effects of Artificial Sweeteners Using Daphnia magna (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Aaron |
Lau |
Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects – Qualified for State Science Fair, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Assn – Board of Directors Awards – Middle School |
Comparison of supplements and pesticides on silkworm growth and productivity (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
||
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Anya Wing |
Lee |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
A Novel AI Approach to Analyze the Cardiovascular Effects of Artificial Sweeteners Using Daphnia magna (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Bhavani |
Linga |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Bioremediation of Different Polyethylene Plastic Bags by Bacillus megaterium (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Sarah |
Thiru |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Mycoremediation of Plastics by Mushroom Species (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Heidi |
Wang |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Creating durable, biodegradable packaging using mycelium from different mushroom species (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Ethan |
Weyn |
Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects – Qualified for State Science Fair, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Assn – Board of Directors Awards – Middle School |
Comparison of supplements and pesticides on silkworm growth and productivity (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
||
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Sophia |
Xu |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Different Types of Tea and Coffee on the Nervous System of Planarian Worms (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Angela Zhifei |
Li |
$100 and Certificate of Achievement, Schonert Award |
DaphniaTrack: AI-Based Monitoring of Daphnia Magna Behavior for Evaluating Ocean Toxicity in Northern California (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Rohan Giridhar |
Rajaram |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Plant based and Biological Pesticides on Culicidae eggs and Larvae. (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Shivam Saran |
Sharma |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Plant based and Biological Pesticides on Culicidae eggs and Larvae. (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Hannah Yuxuan |
Tay |
$100 and Certificate of Achievement, Schonert Award |
DaphniaTrack: AI-Based Monitoring of Daphnia Magna Behavior for Evaluating Ocean Toxicity in Northern California (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Braden |
Yang |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
Using Machine Learning Visual Recognition Models to Detect Poor Posture and Eye Strain (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
||
|
|
Middle School Student – Certificate of Achievement, Letter of Congratulations from the Chief of Naval Research, and Medallion, Office of Naval Research -United States Navy/ US Marine Corps |
||
Maya |
Akunuri |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Investigating the Use of Dried Out Contact Lenses for Water Retention in a Lettuce Plant (Lactuca Sativa) (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Dhruva |
Gopal |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
Effect of Various Amounts of Culturing Salts Supplements on the Bioethanol Production of Chlorella Vulgaris Cultures (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Hemansh |
Gupta |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Hydra: An Application Identifying Optimal Controlled Fire Locations to Restore Ecosystem Health (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Anusha |
Kotalwar |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Investigating the Use of Dried Out Contact Lenses for Water Retention in a Lettuce Plant (Lactuca Sativa) (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Hailey Shirina |
Li |
Honorable Mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Different Materials and Structures on Mechanical Properties of Kirigami as a Substitute for Bubble Wrap (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Rohan |
Mahapatra |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Hydra: An Application Identifying Optimal Controlled Fire Locations to Restore Ecosystem Health (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Sophie |
Shen |
Honorable Mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
The Effect of Different Materials and Structures on Mechanical Properties of Kirigami as a Substitute for Bubble Wrap (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
Tvisha |
Singh |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
Effect of Various Amounts of Culturing Salts Supplements on the Bioethanol Production of Chlorella Vulgaris Cultures (Biological Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Maggie |
Sun |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
Utilizing Food Waste to Produce Biodegradable Packaging Material (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
||
|
|
Middle School or High School $150 and a Certificate of Achievement, Northern California Institute of Food Technologists (NCIFT) |
||
Serena |
Yuan |
Nominated to compete envelope to apply for Thermo Fisher JIC, Thermo Fisher JIC – 8th Grade |
Utilizing Food Waste to Produce Biodegradable Packaging Material (Physical Science and Engineering) |
8 |
|
|
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
||
|
|
Middle School or High School $150 and a Certificate of Achievement, Northern California Institute of Food Technologists (NCIFT) |
29
Upper School
Student |
Award |
Title |
Gr |
|
Vidwat |
Shekar |
$50 cash award and certificate, Bruce Kawanami Engineering Award |
Low-Cost Biodegradable Indoor Air Purifier (Physical Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Aditya |
Shivakumar |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
HgMap: Ultra-Low-Cost, Real-Time Mercury Detection & Remediation with Physics-Informed NNs and Plasmon Resonance Sensors (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
1st Place $150, Valley Water Awards HS |
||
|
|
Certificate of Achievement and opportunity to advance to state, national and international competitions, U. S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize |
||
Trisha |
Shivakumar |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
HgMap: Ultra-Low-Cost, Real-Time Mercury Detection & Remediation with Physics-Informed NNs and Plasmon Resonance Sensors (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
|
|
1st Place $150, Valley Water Awards HS |
||
|
|
Certificate of Achievement and opportunity to advance to state, national and international competitions, U. S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize |
||
Jayden |
Liu |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
A Multiscale Anchor-Free 3D CNN Integrated with Denoising for Early Lung Nodule Detection in Low-Dose CT Images (Biological Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Ishan Krishna |
Mysore |
2nd Award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Predicting Depression Risk for Adolescents through Social Media Post Data: A Machine Learning Approach (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Ananya |
Pradhan |
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease with Optical Coherence Tomography, Magnetic-Resonance Imaging, and Deep Learning (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Andrew Dongjoo |
Shin |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
AGEOptimizer: A Novel Multi-Technique Optimization Tool for Enhanced Model Prediction and Discovery of Cancer Biomarkers (Biological Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Eddie |
Zhang |
2nd Award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
AI-Surgeon: A Transfer Learning Multimodal Ensemble Transformer based VR Copilot for Action Prediction in Trauma Surgery (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Disha |
Gupta |
Grand Prize Alternate – Biological Sciences – Qualified for California Science & Engineering Fair (CSEF), Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Assn – Board of Directors Awards – High School |
Identifying novel GLS-1 inhibitors with deep chemical models & 3D molecular analysis for rapid cancer drug discovery (Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
Certificate of Achievement + Letter from Sponsor (regarding $25 gift card redeemable online + internship opportunity with ASEI Industry Partner + free 1 year membership to ASEI), ASEI Award |
||
|
|
Upper Division :- Honorable Mention Student Award: $65 and Certificate of Achievement, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
||
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Yuqin |
Ma |
Upper Division :- Honorable Mention Student Award: $65 and Certificate of Achievement, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
Systematic Assessment of Protected Species Bycatch with Spatio-Temporal Neural Networks in Subpolar and Tropical Pacific (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
||
Danielle Alice |
Steinbach |
$100, Robby Beyers Innovative Solutions Awards |
A multi-institution foundation model for EEG biomarkers of brain disorder progression, classification, and drug response (Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
|
|
$100 and a certificate, IBM Award |
||
Evan |
Zhang |
Grand Prize – Best of Championship – Physical Sciences – Qualified to be a Regeneron ISEF Finalist, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Assn – Board of Directors Awards – High School |
AI-Driven Artificial Muscle for Cardiac Assist using Hydraulically Amplified Self-Healing Electrostatic Actuators (RRI Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
Certificate of Achievement + Letter from Sponsor (regarding free 1 year membership to ASEI), ASEI Award |
||
|
|
1st Award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Anish |
Kosaraju |
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Revolutionizing AI Security: A Novel Multimodal Framework for Detecting, Isolating, & Preventing Data Poisoning Attacks (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
|
|
High School Student – Certificate of Achievement, Letter of Congratulations from the Chief of Naval Research, Medallion and $50 gift card (redeemable online), Office of Naval Research -United States Navy/ US Marine Corps |
||
Farhan |
Ansari |
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
From Pixels to Pulse: Enhancing Remote Photoplethysmography Accuracy in Compressed Videos (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Aditya |
Banwasi |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
DeepSleep: A Novel Convolutional Neural Network for Sleep Apnea Detection by Analyzing Electroencephalogram Data (Biological Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Siddhant |
Gaur |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
The Role of Mutated Plant-Derived VOCs in Mental Illness: A Biological Factor of Suicide studied in the Aokigahara-Jukai (Physical Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Avi |
Gupta |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
DeepSleep: A Novel Convolutional Neural Network for Sleep Apnea Detection by Analyzing Electroencephalogram Data (Biological Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Danika |
Gupta |
Honorable Mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Scaling of Textile Pollution Mitigation via Computational Methods: NIRS Fabric Classification and Dye Mycoremediation (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Neil |
Krishnan |
1st Award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
On the Connectivity of Friends-and-strangers Graphs (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
12 |
Phoebe |
Lee |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
AI-Driven Forecasting: Deep Learning-Based Predictive Modeling of Wind Power Output to Optimize Clean Energy Supply (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Nathan |
Mao |
2nd Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
DeepSleep: A Novel Convolutional Neural Network for Sleep Apnea Detection by Analyzing Electroencephalogram Data (Biological Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Krish |
Nachnani |
Certificate of Achievement + Letter from Sponsor (regarding free 1 year membership to ASEI), ASEI Award |
Recurrent Event Analysis and Biomarker Discovery for Glioblastoma Using mRNA-sequenced Data (Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Brenna |
Ren |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
RBDGuard: Accessible Early Detection of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Using Single-Lead ECG and Unsupervised Deep Learning (Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Lily |
Shi |
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
OphthaLVLM: A Locally Deployable Large Vision-Language Model for Explainable Eye Disease Diagnosis and Dialogue (Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Kallie |
Wang |
Honorable Mention, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Gene Expression Profiles of Different Stage Lung Cancer Cells Under Hypoxia (RRI Biological Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Claire |
Xu |
Grand Prize – Best of Championship – Biological Sciences – Qualified to be a Regeneron ISEF Finalist, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Assn – Board of Directors Awards – High School |
Non-Invasive Blood-Based Early Alzheimer’s Detection Using Sex-Specific Brain-Blood Graph Reinforcement Learning (Biological Science and Engineering) |
10 |
|
|
$100, Robby Beyers Innovative Solutions Awards |
||
|
|
$375 Cash Prize Voucher from Society for Science and Certificate, Regeneron Biomedical Science Award |
||
|
|
Upper Division :- Honorable Mention Student Award: $65 and Certificate of Achievement, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) |
||
|
|
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
||
Tiffany |
Zhu |
Honorable Mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Predicting the Survivability and Future Growth of Coral Using Machine Learning (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Medha |
Choudhry |
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
A Novel Integration of Multimodal Strategies and Ensemble Learning to Enhance Reliability in Early Skin Cancer Detection (Physical Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Hannah |
Lin |
1st Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
MazeAstro: Discovery of High Proper-Motion Y Brown Dwarfs with Shift-Patch Vision Models and Long-Period Infrared Survey (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Aditya |
Ramanathan |
Honorable Mention, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Deconstructing Household Energy Use: A Machine Learning Approach (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Elizabeth |
Zhang |
2nd Award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Pioneering the First Ever Blind-Search on Circumbinary Planets Using a Novel Non-periodic Deep-learning Algorithm (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Lucas |
Wu |
1st Award, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
De novo Discovery of a Mucin-1 Inhibitor via Machine Learning (Biological Science and Engineering) |
9 |
Pratulya |
Rangavazzala |
$100 and a certificate, IBM Award |
Effect of Wingspan on Airplane efficiency (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Tanisha Supriya |
Vaish |
Honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category |
Effect of Persimmon Natural Products on Common Household Bacterial Growth (Biological Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Vishwa |
Vijay |
$100 and a certificate, IBM Award |
Effect of Wingspan on Airplane efficiency (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Linda |
Zeng |
1st Award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Reinforcing Multi-Step Reasoning through Self-Learning in LLMs (RRI Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |
Ellie |
Zhou |
2nd Award, Physical Science and Engineering Category |
Developing a Non-Contact Cardiac Monitoring System via Remote Photoplethysmography (rPPG) (Physical Science and Engineering) |
10 |
Ananya |
Gurushankar |
2nd Place – $75, Certificate of Achievement, SAMPE – Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering |
Synthesis and Mechanical Analysis of Conductive Alginate Hydrogels for Enhanced Tissue Regeneration (Physical Science and Engineering) |
11 |