Harker students had a great showing at the 2020 Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, winning multiple first awards and grand prizes. Eighth graders Gautam Bhooma and Ramit Goyal were each grand prize winners, and also won first awards along with fellow eighth graders Zachary Blue, Alex Guo, Jordan Labio, Nathan Liu, Ella Lan and Heidi Lu. All won first awards and qualified for the California Science & Engineering Fair, which has been canceled along with the International Science and Engineering Fair, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixth graders Brenna Ren, Kallie Wang, Hubert Lau and Serena Lau were also first award winners.
At the high school level, juniors Krishay Mukhija, Sidra Xu, Russell Yang, Nicholas Yi and sophomore Harsh Deep all won grand prizes. Deep, Muhkija, Xu and Yang also took home first awards. Other upper school first award winners were juniors Michael Eng and Aditya Tadimeti and sophomores Akhilesh Chegu and Deven Shah.
Juniors Cynthia Chen and Allison Jia and senior Ruhi Sayana were all grand prize winners at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science & Technology Championship in March, each earning a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held in May in Phoenix. Junior Aditi Ghalsasi was a grand prize alternate winner, which earned her a trip to the California State Science Fair. Nearly 40 Harker students were winners this year; the Synopsys championship website contains a list of all middle and upper school winners.
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.
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