Two Harker students won awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held last week in Los Angeles.
Junior Amy Jin’s project, titled “Deep Learning-Based Automated Tool Detection and Analysis of Surgical Videos to Assess Operative Skill,” won her a Second Award in the robotics and intelligent machines category. She also won a First Geno Award, which included a $1,000 cash prize, from the Samvid Education Foundation.
Recent graduate Manan Shah ’17 won a Second Award in the computational biology and bioinformatics category for his project, titled “Deep Learning Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Histopathological Images for Categorical and Molecular Breast Cancer Severity Diagnosis.” The project also earned him an honorable mention from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
Both students won their trips to Intel ISEF at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship in March, where they each received grand prizes.
Congratulations to senior Meilan Steimle, who has been named a 2017 Presidential Scholar of the Arts! As one of just 161 scholars nationwide, she is now eligible to attend an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in June, where this year’s scholars will be honored. Scholars who attend this event will have the chance to meet with leading educators, scientists and authors, as well make new friends among their peers.
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April 21, 2017:
Earlier this week, seniors Manan Shah and Meilan Steimle were named semifinalists in the 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Their applications will be reviewed by the Commission on Presidential Scholars to determine this year’s Presidential Scholars.
Congratulations and good luck!
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Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced this year’s candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, and 19 Harker seniors were among them. Mission San Jose topped the local charts with 31. As many as 161 of the more than 5,000 candidates will be chosen as scholars.
The Presidential Scholars Program, launched in 1964, recognizes high school seniors of distinguished achievement in a variety of disciplines. It is recognized as one of the highest honors awarded to high school students.
Harker’s Presidential Scholar candidates for 2017 are:
Kai-Siang Ang
Steven Cao
Aditya Dhar
Davis Dunaway
Ria Gandhi
Andrew Gu
Zhuoying Huang
Lauren Liu
Sanjana Marce
Sandip Nirmel
Evani Radiya-Dixit
Divya Rajasekharan
Andrew Rule
Venkat Sankar
Manan Shah
Meilan Steimle
Arjun Subramaniam
Andrew Tierno
Michael Tseitlin
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Harker has the highest number of candidates from a school in California. Mission San Jose High School has 31 presidential scholar candidates, making it the California school with the most candidates. We apologize for the error.
In October, senior Meilan Steimle and junior Jacqueline He we named as two of the 166 national finalists in the 2017 YoungArts competition, which received more than 8,000 entries. Both students submitted entries in the short story writing category.
As finalists – the highest honor offered by the National YoungArts Foundation – Steimle and He are eligible to participate in National YoungArts Week, which will take place in Miami in January and provide the opportunity to engage with and learn from industry professionals. They also will be eligible to win up to $10,000 in cash prizes, and considered for nomination to become a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.
In addition, He recently had her poem, “Death as a Mother,” published in the online literary journal Eunoia Review.
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) recently recognized two upper school publications: the Winged Post, the campus student newspaper, and HELM, its annual literary magazine. Additionally, the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) awarded the Winged Post with an All-American rating. See Harker Aquila’s full story for more details.
Congratulations to Anooshree Sengupta, grade 11, who will present her research at the American Medical Informatics Association’s 40th annual symposium, to be held Nov. 12-16 in Chicago. Each year, AMIA selects just five individually researched high school student projects to present at the symposium. Sengupta, who conducted her research this past summer at the University of California, San Francisco, will attend the event with upper school computer science chair Eric Nelson.
Classical guitarist Wilson Zhang, grade 8, performed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in July as a winner in the American Protégé competition. Each year, American Protégé evaluates video submissions from young musicians around the world and rewards the best submissions with the opportunity to perform at one of the world’s most prestigious concert venues.
Zhang currently performs with the middle school jazz band, which is a shift from his normal activities as a classical guitarist. “Playing classical guitar…is very different stylistically to what he is playing currently in jazz band,” said Dave Hart, middle school music teacher. “Wilson is doing a great job learning this new music style! He is a fantastic musician and is a pleasure to work with each week. We are all thrilled to have him in the program!”
The Harker chapter of the National Honor Society inducted a record 50 new members on Oct. 6 during a ceremony held at Nichols Hall auditorium.
“We believe that these (and all) NHS members represent the highest ideals of Harker – avid scholarship, impeccable character, strong leadership and a proven dedication to serving others,” said biology teacher Mike Pistacchi, who serves as Harker’s NHS moderator.
Founded in 1921, the National Honor Society recognizes high school students who demonstrate excellence in a variety of areas, including scholarship, student leadership and service.
This year’s NHS inductees are:
Joyce Zhao, grade 12; Akhil Arun, Anika Banga, Richa Bhattacharya, Rahul Bhethanabotla, Shreyas Chandrashekaran, Jerry Chen, Adrian Chu, Aria Coalson, Shaan Gagneja, Megan Huynh, Anamika Kannan, Linus Li, Millie Lin, Sameep Mangat, Rahul Mehta and Tanvi Singh, all grade 11; and Raymond Banke, Logan Bhamidipaty, Alycia Cary, Timothy Chang, Nicole Chen, Esha Deokar, Rose Guan, Constance Horng, Shafieen Ibrahim, Hannah Lak, Taylor Lam, Enya Lu, Ihita Mandal, Sonal Muthal, Rithvik Panchapakesan, Ayush Pancholy, Brian Park, Ashwin Rammohan, Nishant Ravi, Ashwin Reddy, Anjay Saklecha, Ruhi Sayana, Kelly Shen, Kaushik Shivakumar, Neha Tallapragada, Katherine Tian, Alyson Wang, Cindy Wang, Richard Wang, Shania Wang, Kelsey Wu, Stephanie Xiao and Connie Xu, all grade 10.
In early October, two Harker fifth graders traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Junior Championship Squash Tournament. Riya Navani, grade 5, won the girls U11 championship and Varun Fuloria, grade 5, came in sixth. Navani and Fuloria were among the top 32 squash players from 16 states to compete in divisions ranging from U11 through U19. Congratulations, Riya and Varun!
Senior Srivatsav Pyda was named the champion of the Voices Foundation Lincoln Douglas Debate Invitational & Round Robin, held at Presentation High this past weekend. He was the top speaker, the top seed and his record was undefeated. After winning six preliminary and five elimination rounds, he was named the tournament champion out of 150 students. Schools from across the country, including from as far away as New Jersey, competed at this event. Congrats, Srivatsav!
Senior Venkat Sankar and Arohee Bhoja, grade 8, had excellent runs at this summer’s National Junior Classical League Convention at Indiana University.
Sankar reached the top 10 in no fewer than 11 events. He took second place in Greek Derivatives IV; third place in Ancient Geography IV, Classical Art IV and Roman Life IV; fourth place in Greek Life and Literature IV, Latin Vocabulary IV and Reading Comprehension IV; sixth place in Boys Dramatic Interpretation, Sight Latin Poetry and Maps, Drawn 11-2; and ninth place in Latin Derivatives IV.
Meanwhile, Bhoja took fourth place in Sight Latin Girls II, and ninth in Latin Vocabulary II and Reading Comprehension II, and helped the team representing California reach ninth place in Intermediate Certamen.
Sankar and Bhoja also helped the California delegation win the spirit competition.