Earlier this week, the New York Academy of Sciences accepted senior Ayush Vyas into the NYAS Junior Academy. As part of NYAS’ Global STEM Alliance (GSA), the Junior Academy program connects students aged 13-18 with a range of educational and networking opportunities in STEM disciplines such as public health, sustainability, emerging technology and many more.
Members of the academy participate twice a year in innovation challenges that address a wide range of global issues. Students attend a boot camp to bolster the skills necessary to address these challenges. More than 6,500 applications were submitted to the program this year, and Vyas is one of 586 students accepted. As one of the accepted participants, Vyas is eligible to attend the Global STEM Alliance Summit in New York City, set for summer 2019.
Congratulations to Alice Feng, grade 9, and Sriram Bhimaraju, grade 7, on being named finalists in this year’s Broadcom MASTERS competition! They are two of just 30 students who are headed to Washington, D.C. next month for the final stage of this national middle school STEM contest, which had a record 2,537 applicants this year. While in Washington, the top 30 — who will each receive a cash prize of $500 — will demonstrate their knowledge of STEM, as well as their acumen in critical thinking, collaboration and more in a competition for the top prize of $25,000.
Sept. 5, 2018
Five Harker students were recently named to the Top 300 in this year’s Broadcom MASTERS competition, one of the top middle school STEM competitions in the country. This year the competition, organized by the Society for Science & the Public, included more than 5,000 nominees and 2,537 applicants, each evaluated by distinguished members of the scientific community.
Harker students in the Top 300, who entered the contest during the 2017-18 school year, are Harsh Deep, Alice Feng, Shounak Ghosh, and Arely Sun, all grade 9; and Sriram Bhimaraju, grade 7. More information, including project titles, is available at the competition’s website.
Later this month, 30 of the Top 300 MASTERS will be selected as finalists to travel to Washington, D.C., in October for the final portion of the competition. Congratulations and best of luck!
Sriram Bhimaraju, who will enter grade 7 in the fall, was today named a finalist in the Discovery Education 3M 2018 Young Scientist Challenge! Every year, students in grades 5-8 submit videos for the competition, in which they detail a scientific solution they have devised to an existing problem. Bhimaraju developed a smartphone app that helps archers improve their aim with the aid of a Bluetooth sensor. In his video, Bhimaraju explains how he used Hooke’s Law and several formulas to calculate how various factors affect an arrow’s trajectory when shot from a bow, and how he utilized the smartphone’s gyroscope and accelerometer to help archers reach the optimal form. The final stage of the competition is set to take place Oct. 15-16 at 3M’s headquarters in Maplewood, Minn.
At this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held May 14-18 in Pittsburgh, juniors Anjay Saklecha and Krish Kapadia were grand award winners, receiving a fourth place award of $500 for their project, “UCH-L1 and s100B in Saliva as Novel Biomarkers for Severe Traumatic Brain Injury,” in the translational medical science category. The pair also won first place and $750 from the Air Force Research Laboratory. Also successful was junior Cameron Jones, who received a fourth place award in the physics and astronomy category for his project, titled “Automated Identification and Inference of Organic Molecular Structure and Relative Concentrations from Infrared Spectral Data.”
The students qualified for Intel ISEF after receiving grand prizes at the 2018 Synopsys Science & Technology Championship in March. About 1,800 high school students from around the world showcase their research each year at the event, which is the world’s largest science fair for pre-college students, millions of whom participate in local science fairs to earn a chance to appear at Intel ISEF.
In April, eighth graders David Dai, Harsh Deep, Shounak Ghosh, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao received certificates of commendation from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who represents California’s 18th Congressional District. Eshoo graciously issued the certificates to congratulate the students on reaching the finals of the National Science Bowl, which took place April 26-30 in Washington, D.C. The team reached the final double-elimination bracket after winning a tough round robin, where in one match it scored an unusually high 204.
“The scoring judge even said that they do not see scores so high in the national competition and offered to give us the score sheet as a souvenir,” said middle school mathematics chair Vandana Kadam, who accompanied the team to the event. Harker received $1,000 for the team’s success in the round robin portion of the event.
Over the weekend, four Harker teams won awards in the 2018 Tech Challenge Showcase, held at the Tech Museum in San Jose. At the event, teams of grade 4-12 students demonstrated the devices they had constructed for this year’s contest. More than 600 teams comprising 2,000 students entered the competition, which challenged them to design and build a device that could successfully fall 10 feet into a drop zone, then deliver a payload to a target situated on a ramp, without the aid of batteries or electricity.
Grade 4 students Sofia Shah, Minal Jalil, MacEnzie Blue, Tiffany Zhu, Tanvi Sivakumar, Arushi Sahasi and honorary team member Rocky (Jalil’s dog) formed team “SMMARTT,” which received an outstanding overall award in the grades 4-5 category.
Sixth graders Nathan T. Liu, Adrian Liu and Aniketh Tummala, known as the “Huskies,” won the award for top tech challenge story, which explained the origins of the device they built. The “FlyteZON” team, made up of Neel Handa, Om Tandon and Zachary Blue, all grade 6, won an award for being outstanding overall.
Team “Flopper Waffles” – grade 7 students Brian Chen, Andrew Fu, Jacob Huang and Nicholas Wei – received an award for outstanding device performance.
At last month’s Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, Harker juniors Cameron Jones, Krish Kapadia, Anjay Saklecha and Ruhi Sayana were grand prize winners, which earned them a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, to be held in Philadelphia in May. Junior Katherine Zhang, a grand prize alternate winner, was awarded a trip to the California Science & Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. Many more Harker students also were successful at the event, and Harker was named an outstanding school at both the middle and upper school levels. The full list of middle and upper school winners is as follows:
Upper School
Allison Jia, grade 10, $100 first prize, Morgan Lewis; second award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Ankita Kundu, grade 9, $100 first place, certificate of achievement and letter, Inez M. Lechner Award
Johnny Wang, grade 11, high school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 prize; honorable mention, certificate of achievement, Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC); first award, Physical Science and Engineering Category
Lizhi Yang, grade 11, high school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certficate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 prize; honorable mention, certificate of achievement, Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC); first award, Physical Science and Engineering Category
Sahil Jain, grade 10, ASEI Silicon Valley Emerging Technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award
Krish Kapadia, grade 11, grand prize (best of championship), Biological Sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and certificate, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Anjay Saklecha, grade 11, grand prize (best of championship), Biological Sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and certificate, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Sidra Xu, grade 9, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Russell Yang, grade 9, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Ruhi Sayana, grade 11, grand prize (best of championship), Biological Sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and certificate, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; $100 first prize, Morgan Lewis; first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Ayush Alag, grade 11, first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Cynthia Chen, grade 10, first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Cameron Jones, grade 11, grand prize (best of championship), Physical Sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and certificate, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; honorable mention student award, $50 and certificate of achievement, Association for Computing Machinery, San Francisco Bay Area Professional Chapter; first award, RRI Physical Science and Engineering Category
Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 11, Intel ECS certificate of achievement and forms to submit for $200, Intel Excellence in Computer Science Award
Katherine Zhang, grade 11, grand prize alternate, Biological Sciences, trip to state science fair and certificate, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Amy Dunphy, grade 12, second award, Physical Science and Engineering Category
Swapnil Garg, grade 12, first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Michael Kwan, grade 12, ASEI Silicon Valley Emerging Technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award
Rajiv Movva, grade 12, second award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Katherine Tian, grade 11, first award, RRI Biological Science and Engineering Category
Zachary Clark, honorable mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category; honorable mention award, Popular Science magazine subscription and certificate of achievement, ASM International, A Society for Materials, Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Syna Gogte, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Kate Olsen, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Brandon Park, honorable mention, Physical Science and Engineering Category; honorable mention award, Popular Science magazine subscription and certificate of achievement, ASM International, A Society for Materials, Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Alice Feng, nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th grade; first award, Physical Science and Engineering Category
Angela Gao, honorable mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Angela Jia, honorable mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Aaron Lo, honorable mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Anishka Raina, middle school cash award ($50) and letter of recognition, Northern California Institute of Food Technologists
Riyaa Randhawa, certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association
Liza Shchegrov, certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association
Arely Sun, nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th grade; first award, Physical Science and Engineering Category
Zeel Thakkar, honorable mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Nicole Tian, honorable mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Thresiamma Vazhaeparambil, middle school cash award ($50) and letter of recognition, Northern California Institute of Food Technologists
Melody Yazdi, honorable Mention, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Akhilesh Chegu, nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th grade; first award, Biological Science and Engineering Category; first place award, $125 and certificate of achievement, American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, Northern California Branch
Harsh Deep, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Shounak Ghosh, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Pranav Gupta, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Prakrit Jain, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Rishi Jain, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Ishaan Mantripragada, second award, Biological Science and Engineering Category
Deven Shah,nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th grade; first award, Biological Science and Engineering Category; first place award, $125 and certificate of achievement, American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, Northern California Branch
The 13th annual Harker Research Symposium, held Saturday at the upper school campus, drew more than 700 people from the Harker community to learn more about “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution” – this year’s theme – and see the work of Harker student researchers.
Jeff Dean, a Google senior fellow with Google’s Brain Team and this year’s morning keynote speaker, attracted a large crowd to the Athletic Center for his talk on machine learning and how his team’s research has been applied to Google products. He also spoke about the ways machine learning will change how we live in the future, covering urban renewal through self-driving cars and better healthcare through improved informatics.
Attendees later made their way to the Nichols Hall atrium, where they perused the many exhibitors, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Roku and Solvvy, trying out virtual reality and holographic technology, as well as learning about advancements in video streaming and AI-driven customer self-service.
At the auxiliary gym, the middle and upper school poster presentations proved once again to be a popular attraction, as students gave detailed breakdowns of their research and findings to curious visitors. Breakout sessions also were held, during which Harker upper school students gave presentations on research projects they had conducted.
With artificial intelligence experiencing rapid growth, the symposium aimed to prepare future generations to enter (and perhaps have a hand in creating) a future of intelligent machines through a series of workshops for lower, middle and upper school students. In the upper school workshop, Harker parent and LodgIQ CTO Somnath Banerjee (Sumantra, grade 11, and Nila ’14) learned how to train neural networks and create a machine-learned image. Wayne Liu, general manager and vice president of business development at Perfect Corp., gave middle schoolers an introductory lesson on AI and how it is used in the real world, and got them started on an AI project of their own. Lower school students received a primer on AI and played games that taught key concepts in two separate workshops, one conducted by junior Natasha Maniar and sophomore Cynthia Chen, and another led by sophomores Joshua Valluru, Eileen Li and Vani Mohindra.
During lunch, attendees once again flocked to the quad to see chemistry teachers Andrew Irvine and David Casso (very safely) create balls of fire and spectacular plumes at the chemistry magic show, after which the crowd returned to the Athletic Center for the afternoon keynote address, delivered by Andrew Beck, co-founder and CEO of PathAI. In his talk, Beck detailed the work he is doing with PathAI, which aims to develop image recognition technology for use in pathology, including improving accuracy in the diagnosis and prediction of cancer. He also shared the impact he expects this technology will have on the medical field in the coming decades.
Alumna speaker Ramya Rangan ’12 delivered a talk on molecular machines to a packed Nichols Hall auditorium, detailing how discoveries about the inner workings of proteins and other macromolecules will lead to the design of human-made molecular machines, and the questions such advancements will bring.
Afternoon events also included talks by finalists from this year’s Siemens Competition and Regeneron Science Talent Search, with presentations given by senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian, whose team project took them to national finals of the Siemens Competition, and seniors Justin Xie and Rajiv Movva, who were finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
The event closed with a panel discussion on the various research opportunities available to Harker students, delivered by upper school science teachers Anita Chetty and Chris Spenner, Harker parent Prasad Movva (Rajiv, grade 12, and Neil ’15), seniors Nastya Grebin, Amy Jin, Rajiv Movva and Justin Xie, and junior Katherine Tian.
Middle school scientists were very successful in the 2018 Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision contest, in which teams of students created and submitted scientific research projects.
Two Harker middle school teams won regional recognition in the grades 7-9 division. Eighth graders Rishab Parthasarathy, Rohan Thakur, Michael Tran and William Zhao were regional winners for their project, “A Novel Method to Treat Diabetes Using Specially Designed Nanobots.” In addition, “Gene Editing Just Got Way CRISPR!” a project by eighth graders Akhilesh Chegu, Alex Liou and Deven Shah, was awarded an honorable mention.
Over the next month, regional winners will prepare a website and prototype for the next stage of the competition. Teams with successful entries will be invited to an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., in early June. Good luck!
Two teams of Harker students performed admirably at this past weekend’s Middle School Science Bowl regional competition. The first team, consisting of eighth graders David Dai, Harsh Deep, Shounak Ghosh, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao, went undefeated throughout the competition and emerged as the winner, earning a trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals. Team two, made up of seventh graders Rohan Bhowmik and Brian Chen, and eighth graders Mark Hu, Kailash Ranganathan and Aditya Tagore, advanced to the double elimination round after going 5-0 in the round robin portion of the event.
Both teams were coached by upper school students Leon Lu, Kaushik Shivakumar and Alexander Young, all grade 11; and sophomores Emily Liu and Kyle Li, all of whom participated in the Science Bowl as middle school students. With this victory and the upper school team’s previous regional win, Harker will send two teams to the Science Bowl national finals for the first time in Harker history!