The Society for Science & the Public announced the 40 finalists for this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search, and three Harker seniors are among those named! They (and their projects) are:
Ayush Alag, “Computational DNA Methylation Analysis of Food Allergy Yields Novel 13-gene Signature to Diagnose Clinical Reactivity”
Natasha Maniar, “MapAF: Deep Learning to Improve Therapy of Complex Human Heart Rhythm Abnormalities”
Ruhi Sayana, “Precision Care for Leukemia: Discovery of Novel Therapeutics for High-Risk ALL via Epigenetic and Computational Transcriptome Profiling”
Each of these students will head to Washington, D.C., in early March for the national finals.
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Jan. 9, 2019:
Seven Harker seniors – the most of any school in California – were named Top 300 Scholars in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Society for Science & the Public announced today. Ayush Alag, Cameron Jones, Natasha Maniar, Ruhi Sayana, Katherine Tian, Cindy Wang and Richard Wang were among 300 students chosen from the 2,000 entries in this year’s competition. Each will receive a $2,000 prize, and Harker will be awarded an additional $2,000, as will every school that produced a Top 300 Scholar.
This year’s 40 finalists will be announced on Jan. 23, and in March they will embark on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the final portion of the competition, during which more than $1.8 million in prizes will be awarded. Congratulations and best of luck to these stellar students!
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!
Yesterday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 43 Harker seniors – 22 percent of the class of 2019 – were named semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.
This year’s semifinalists are:
Ayush Alag, Nishka Ayyar, Logan Bhamidipaty, Robert Bloomquist, Joshua Broweleit, Timothy Chang, Christie Chen, Pamela Duke, Kai Franz, Lilia Gonzales, Rose Guan, Matthew Hajjar, Haris Hosseini, Amelia Huchley, Krish Kapadia, Jacob Kim, Noah Lincke, Enya Lu, Leon Lu, Joel Manning, Jay Menon, Puneet Nayyar, Cedric Nowatzyk, Rithvik Panchapakesan, Ayush Pancholy, Jerry Peng, Meghna Phalke, Anika Rajamani, Ashwin Rammohan, Akshay Ravoor, Ashwin Reddy, Ruhi Sayana, Keval Shah, Kaushik Shivakumar, Neha Tallapragada, Katherine Tian, Timothy Wang, Alexander Wloka, Connie Xu, Helen Yang, Alexander Young, Alexander Yu and Katherine Zhang.
Semifinalists represent the top 1 percent – about 16,000 – of the 1.6 million students who entered the National Merit Scholarship Program in 2017 after taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Students who are to become finalists will be notified of their advancement in February.
Harker students turned in one of their best performances to date at this year’s TEAMS (Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) national competition, held June 22-26 in Atlanta. Team A – consisting of rising juniors Jessica Jiang, Matthew Jin, Sachin Shah, Jasmine Wiese and team captain Jackie Yang, and rising sophomores Russell Yang and Luisa Pan – ranked first among the teams recognized as Best in Nation in the grades 9/10 division. They also were the top team in the Problem Solving category and among the top 10 in Prepared Presentation and Digital Media.
Team B – made up of rising juniors Prerana Acharyya, Ellen Guo, Rashmi Iyer, Annabelle Ju, Jason Pan, team captain Jin Tuan and Bryan Yang, as well as Stanford Online High School freshman David Smith – had a strong performance of their own, placing first in Prepared Presentation and third for Best in Nation.
“I believe this is the best that Harker has ever done at the national TEAMS competition,” said upper school math teacher Anthony Silk, who oversees Harker’s TEAMS participation. “What a great way to finish a year!”
Amy Jin ’18 drew a fine accolade from the City of San Jose via Councilmember Chappie Jones, who, along with Mayor Sam Liccardo, presented her with a commendation yesterday.
The midday meeting, held in council chambers, celebrated Jin for being named one of five students nationwide to receive the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing from the Computer Science Teachers Association in March.
Jones, who represents the city council district in which Harker resides, noted, “Amy Jin just graduated from high school and she is already proving to be such an accomplished young person. I was honored to present Amy with a commendation at City Council for being 1 of 5 students in the nation to win the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing.”
In describing her work, Jin said, “Every year, 7 million patients suffer surgical complications, many of which are caused by poor operative skill due to lack of individualized training and feedback. Improving these surgical outcomes means evaluating surgeon performance, a time-consuming process requiring expert supervision. Thus, I developed a deep-learning approach to automatically assess operative technique, functioning as a ‘coach’ for surgeons.
“I leveraged a convolutional neural network to teach computers to classify and localize surgical instruments in videos in real time. Increasing accuracy for tool presence detection by 28 percent and tracking instrument locations, my approach enabled rich analysis of surgical performance. It expedites surgical skill assessment through automated extraction of visual and quantitative metrics, such as tool usage patterns and trajectories, movement range and motion economy. My results have been validated by surgeons, setting the stage for building a context-aware system that can assist surgeons during procedures and provide targeted feedback.”
Jin’s other recognition includes a best paper award at the 2017 Machine Learning for Health Workshop at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference, and being named a Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar. Jin is also a John Near Endowment recipient and a National Merit Scholarship awardee. She plays classical violin and has performed at Carnegie Hall. Read more in this Harker News story. https://staging.news.harker.org/senior-amy-jin-one-of-five-in-the-country-to-win-cutler-bell-prize-in-high-school-computing/
Harker students from the lower, middle and upper schools headed to San Diego last weekend for the Future Problem Solving California State Bowl, where teams from all three divisions won in various categories.
In the senior division (grades 10-12), the grade 11 team of Taylor Lam, Sara Min, Kelly Shen, and Tiffany Wong won for Presentation of Action Plan. In Global Issues Problem Solving, Jin Tuan, Amla Rashingkar, Sriya Prathuri, and Arushi Madan, all grade 10, took third place. Tuan also did well in Individual Global Issues Problem Solving, placing fourth overall.
Middle division students (grades 7-9) were especially successful, with the grade 8 team of Rohan Thakur, Shahzeb Lakhani, Daniel Wu and Kailash Ranganathan emerging as the winners in Global Issues Problem Solving, qualifying them for the international competition in June. Ninth graders Stephanie Shen, Luisa Pan and Elaine Zhai all participated in the MAGIC (Multiple Affiliate Global Issues Competition) event, in which teams are formed with students from different schools. Shen’s team placed first in Presentation of Action Plan, in which Zhai’s team took second place. In Global Issues Problem Solving, Pan’s team placed first.
Competing in the junior division (grades 4-6) was the grade 5 team of Daniel Chen, Anika Pallapothu and Anandita Arun, who earned third place in Presentation of Action Plan.
Watch for the article on Future Problems Solvers and other competitive programs in the 2018 summer issue of Harker Magazine to be delivered in late June.
Each year, John Near and Mitra Family endowment scholars are honored at a special reception in the Nichols Hall auditorium. Established in 2009 and 2011, respectively, The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund and Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities have allowed students to pursue research on a wide variety of topics. At the reception, students, their teachers and their mentors come together for the formal presentation of the papers prior to Harker’s librarians archiving them online for posterity.
The 2018 scholars are seniors Derek Yen, Andrew Semenza, Serena Lu, Matthew Lee, Amy Jin, Alan Jiang, Jacqueline He and Emily Chen. These students traveled new paths as they defined and researched their chosen topics. The results are eight papers, each delving into a facet of history, and eight students who know more about themselves than when they started their projects one year ago.
Each student spoke eloquently on the journey to self-knowledge and was effusive in praise for both the program and the mentors who helped them succeed in a grueling task while maintaining all of their regular classes. The list of papers is below. Each scholar had poignant memories of their intellectual journey.
Emily Chen, via video, spoke to the magnitude of the project and the changes that came along the way. “It was a really interesting project that started and ended in two completely different places,” she said. “I was definitely not expecting to change my thesis 60 pages into the paper, or to hold a tiny plastic ruler up to my computer screen hours before the deadline getting the widths of 40 different screen caps of movies or to produce a paper of this length. None of this was in the original game plan, but I’m really glad it turned out this way and I’m really glad to have participated in this program.”
“With a project of this size comes the invaluable support and contributions of many,” said Amy Jin, addressing her mentors. “I have learned from you the importance of not just challenging, questioning and striving to connect the pieces of historical narrative, but also of accepting any missing pieces simply because not all questions are answerable.”
“For me, at least, researching as a Near Scholar has been truly one of the most fulfilling, challenging and informative experiences of my life,” said Derek Yen. “I realize that this will … be one of the defining features of my entire education. The fact that Harker has such a well-developed and comprehensive humanities program is very, very valuable and very rare.”
Among the many positive aspect of the effort, Yen noted, is the contact with university research sources. “Besides just being able to access university archives and primary documents, being able to connect with the scholarly community by being able to speak with professors has really, for me, put into perspective the true nature of academic scholarship.”
Andrew Semenza, who was traveling, had his remarks delivered by Yen. “Despite some frustrations, the past year has been significantly bettered for me by my participation in the program. Not only did I have the opportunity to dig into something quite meaningful to me, but the research gave me a sort of an extracurricular intellectual structure through with I might think about other ideas. To me, this sharing of research (with the other scholars) is particularly important in the humanities where the intellectual currency consists of concepts and ideas, above all else.”
Jacqueline He added, “To me, Near/Mitra represents not just an academic endeavor, but also a journey of personal growth. I grew to love the atmosphere of the humanities, which is immersive and interdisciplinary and always challenging. I learned that nothing in history is ever meant to be clear cut, and that’s what makes the process so inherently enjoyable.”
Alan Jiang has attended Harker for the last two years. “Throughout the whole process, I realized that there is so much more that I have learned,” he said. “I thought that my paper was only going to be focused on psychology, but there are elements of linguistics, there are elements of biology on how the human brain interacts with the vocal mechanisms, and I am truly humbled by the vast knowledge that I was exposed to. Although my time as a Near/Mitra scholar ended, my time as a student has not; there is so much more new information, new knowledge that awaits.”
“The Near/Mitra program is near and dear to my heart,” said Serena Lu, “and I think the research we have all done demonstrates the value in learning about humanities no matter what field we go into. I have learned one very big lesson from my research: Always think critically about what you are taught, and what you teach.”
Matthew Lee thanked the entire social sciences department at Harker, where, “stopping by with a quick question evolved into a discussion on how a specific historical event came to be, how we critique and view history, and that really, really matters,” he said.
“That to me,” he added, “is the essence of social science. Learning social science enables us to view the world through a different lens, altogether – it creates better citizens, not just better workers. Beyond just the eight scholars on this stage, today, know that you have planted a blossom in every single Harker student that enables them to not only be good students in the classroom, good workers in the workplace, but also dedicated citizens in the world around them.”
The Papers
“Critical Mass: Examining the Unique Circumstances that Elevated the Newsworthiness of the Three Mile Island Accident,” by Derek Yen, Near Scholar
“River to Reservoir: Changes in Philosophies of Environmental Preservation Argumentation in Relation to 20th-Century Dam-Building,” by Andrew Semenza, Near Scholar
“Games of Truth: The Evolution of Japan’s History,” by Serena Lu, Mitra Scholar
“’There Are No Neutrals There:’ Radicalism, Progressivism, and Class Struggle in 1930s Harlan Kentucky,” by Matthew Lee, Near Scholar
“Carving Small Fish From Gold: Exploring the Genesis of Magical Realism in Latin American Literature as a Means of Resistance,” by Jacqueline He, Mitra Scholar
“Sounds as Speech Therapy: The Trials of Pronouncing a New Language,” by Alan Jiang, Mitra Scholar
“Bad Blood: Racialized Medicine and Scientific Self-Regulation in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,” by Amy Jin, Near Scholar
“Across Every River: French New Wave Formalism and Fifth Generation Chinese Cinema,” by Emily Chen, Mitra Scholar
Earlier this week, several Harker students were named national medalists in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Jacqueline He, grade 12, earned a gold medal for “Mollusk Threnody,” her entry in the poetry category. Junior Annabelle Perng was awarded a silver medal for her flash fiction piece, “Name Tag,” and Katherine Zhang, also grade 11, received a silver medal in the journalism category for her article, titled “Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts Throw the Future of Research into Question.”
At the middle school level, eighth grader Michelle Liu was awarded two gold medals for her submissions in the drawing and illustration category, “The Feast of Harvest” and “Leisure Time.”
As national medalists, these students are invited to attend the national events this summer in New York City. Gold medalists are invited to the national ceremony at Carnegie Hall.
Congratulations to these students for receiving this remarkable recognition!
Swapnil Garg, grade 12, has been invited to participate in the Romanian Masters of Mathematics competition in Bucharest. The invitation to participate is based on a series of tests, called the team selection test (TST) or team selection exam (TSE); these tests are given to top finishers in the USA Mathematical Olympiad (ASAMO) and ultimately determine the national team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
To even qualify to take the TST, a student must first do exceptionally well on the American Mathematics Competition. He or she is then invited to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), followed by the USAMO and Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO and USAJMO).
The top students from the USAJMO are invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Program the summer after the exam. Those students are then eligible to be selected for the six-member team that will represent the United States at the IMO the following summer.
Garg will travel to Bucharest with three teammates and two adults; the group departs Feb. 20. Attending the Romanian Masters Mathematics competition is a huge honor! Good luck Swapnil! See all participants here.