Update: Manan Shah earns second in individuals in 2016 Siemens Competition

UPDATE Dec. 6, 2016

Manan Shah, grade 12, was awarded second place in the individual category at the national Siemens Competition award ceremony in Washington, D.C., this morning! His win brings a $50,000 scholarship. The ceremony was live-streamed from Washington. Anita Chetty, science department chair noted, “We have not achieved this level in the individual category before. I join our entire K-12 team in celebrating this outstanding achievement for our school!” Heartiest congratulations to Manan!

UPDATE: Nov. 7, 2016
In early November, the Siemens Foundation announced that senior Manan Shah is a national finalist in the 2016 Siemens Competition. Shah’s work – a computational model designed to speed up and increase the accuracy of assessing the severity and growth of breast cancer tumors – won him top individual honors and a $3,000 scholarship. 

Shah now moves on to the final stage of the competition in Washington, D.C., which will take place in early December. A total of $500,000 in scholarships will be distributed to winners, and two contestants will be awarded the top prize of $100,000

Here is the NBC story with some great quotes from Manan!

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The Siemens Foundation announced on Oct. 20 that Harker senior Manan Shah and juniors Randy Zhao and Rajiv Movva were named regional finalists in this year’s Siemens Competition. These three students will compete in November for a chance to move on to the final stage of the competition in Washington, D.C. One of the country’s most prestigious science competitions, the Siemens Competition rigorously evaluates individual and team research projects submitted by high school students and awards more than $600,000 in scholarships through regional and national events. 

Earlier this week, 19 Harker students were named Siemens semifinalists, the most of any school in California. More than 1,600 projects were submitted for the 2016 competition, and 498 students were named semifinalists. Harker’s semifinalists make up 3.8% of the total.

Harker’s semifinalists for 2016 are Rishab Gargeya, Joyce Huang, Nikhil Manglik, Connie Miao, Sandip Nirmel, Venkat Sankar, Manan Shah, Scott Song and Arjun Subramaniam, all grade 12; and Akhil Arun, Jerry Chen, Amy Jin, Jimmy Lin, Rajiv Movva, Sahana Srinivasan, Justin Xie, Kevin Xu, Shaya Zarkesh and Randy Zhao, all grade 11.

“Amazing process and outcomes from our powerhouse science departments,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school.

Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school, noted the high number of student submissions to the competition (40 in all) and said, “It is great to see such participation and involvement in research.  Thank you to all science teachers who contribute to that love of science and curiosity.”

Anita Chetty, upper school science chair, recognized the efforts of the science faculty at the lower and middle schools, exclaiming, “The upper school science department celebrates with our amazing colleagues in the lower school who lay the foundation and the middle school that develops our farm team!”