The 17th Harker Research Symposium on April 15 brought hundreds from the Harker community to the upper school campus to view student research, hear from fascinating speakers, explore a variety of booths and exhibits and more.
Opening speaker Janice Chen, co-founder and CTO of Mammoth Sciences, spoke on recent advances that have “really paved the way in helping us understand the relationship between our genes and our health.” Her talk covered, among other things, CRISPR sequences that have enabled key advances. “We’ve…been able to train our immune cells for instance, therapies to specifically find cancer cells while avoiding the healthy ones,” she said. “CRISPR is one of those breakthrough technologies that’s really making a difference in research and development.”
Rohit Vashisht, the morning keynote speaker, spoke on how data science can help address the disparity in the quality of healthcare in the United States, which negatively affects Black Americans, women and those who lack access to quality education, employment and housing. In his presentation, Vashisht covered his ongoing research in collecting and analyzing data across the country, efforts to curb inequalities in healthcare and methods to produce data that will result in more equitable decision-making.
Students and student clubs held several workshops during the day, including an introductory class on medical illustration, led by junior Anika Mantripragada and a beginner’s class on artificial intelligence held by the AI Club. Breakout sessions were held throughout the day, showcasing the research done by Harker upper school students, including Regeneron Science Talent Search semifinalists.
This year’s alumni speaker, Simar Bajaj ’20, presented on the importance of storytelling in passing good scientific policy. Bajaj, who has been involved in science journalism since 2020 and won Science Story of the Year from the Foreign Press association in December, discussed how facts and figures are not enough to sway public opinion. “The reality is that there was never a policy in the history of our country that would just pass because it was a good idea,” he said. “They pass because they’re able to open someone’s eyes, someone’s soul, to the impact, to the purpose.”
At a special alumni panel, Harker alums discussed the various ways their time at Harker led them to their current careers. Alison Rugar ’13 shared the story of how she discovered her love of science through softball. “Softball was actually the basis for my first science project, which I presented here at the Symposium,” she said. “As a pitcher, I depended really heavily on my curveball, and in order for breaking pitches to actually move when they cross the plate, you need to put a lot of spin on the ball…so my dad and I set out to measure how much spin I was putting on my pitches. We drilled a hole in a softball, stuck a magnet in, wound a coil of wire and used Faraday’s law of induction. And that was a really great experience. It gave me a lot of basic skills.”
Throughout the day, visitors headed to the auxiliary gym, where middle school students had set up posters to present their research, happily answering questions about their methods and findings. Younger attendees enjoyed the many activities set up at the STEM Buddies area, where stations were run by upper school students who guided the visitors through a series of fun experiments. During lunchtime, the much-loved chemistry magic show wowed the audience with eye-catching displays of various chemical reactions.
Ava Bhowmik, grade 9, recently received a first place award at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Her project, which measured fluid droplet sizes and the efficacy of protective masks, was the top oral presentation in the Engineering and Technology category, earning her a $12,000 scholarship.
Sponsored by the United States Department of Defense, the National JSHS took place April 12-15 in Virginia Beach, Va., and invited 227 high school students to compete, judged by teachers, university faculty, STEM industry professionals and more. Bhowmik was among the 48 national winners who reached the national stage by participating at one of the 49 regional competitions hosted in the United States, Puerto Rico and Department of Defense Education Activity schools across the world.
Alec Zhang, grade 11, and Jingjing Liang, grade 9, were recently awarded Project of the Year in the senior division at the California Science & Engineering Fair. Their project, titled “Development of an Innovative Eye-Tracking and Audio Hybrid System for ASD Early Detection,” won the pair the top prize of $5,000.
“We really appreciate the wonderful research programs at Harker, the intellectual vitality of the environment and the amazing mentors and peers at school to support us along this journey,” Zhang said. The two students plan to donate half of their winnings to science fairs serving underprivileged communities and the other half to youth with special needs.
Many other Harker students also performed well at CSEF.
Junior Division:
Brandon Labio, grade 8, Honorable Mention, Applied Mechanics and Structures
Nathan Yee, grade 8, Honorable Mention, Applied Mechanics and Structures
Anish Kosaraju, grade 8, Honorable Mention, Behavioral and Social Sciences
Last week, Harker students attended a guest lecture by cardiologist Shalini Bhambani ’02, who provided insight into her profession with a series of case studies of patients she had helped.
In one case study, a patient required an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, a device that monitors the heart for irregular heartbeats and delivers an electric shock to restore a normal rhythm. Another case study involved a patient suffering from endocarditis due to a staph infection, and needed a heart valve replaced. She described two types of synthetic valves and their respective pros and cons. Bioprosthetic valves use bovine, porcine or equine biological material that do not form clots but need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years, while mechanical valves made from titanium and carbon can last for the rest of the patient’s life but are prone to forming clots.
On Feb. 11, Harker students Jeremy Ko, Ethan Liu, Jason Shim, Rohan Bhowmik and Arnav Swaroop took second place at the U.S. Department of Energy Regional Science Bowl, held at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. The team was coached by upper school chemistry teacher Mala Raghavan.
Although the team didn’t win, it was victorious over defending national champions Lynbrook High School, which Harker chemistry teacher Robbie Korin called a “major accomplishment.”
Today, senior Sally Zhu was named one of the top 40 finalists in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search. Zhu’s project, titled “On the Smoothness and Regularity of the Chess Billiard Flow and the Poincaré Problem,” was chosen by a jury of professional scientists. Zhu is now eligible to attend the final stage of the competition, to be held in Washington, D.C., in March. There, the finalists’ work will be judged and the top 10 prize winners will be selected to win cash prizes ranging from $40,000 to $250,000. Each finalist will be awarded $25,000.
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Jan. 10, 2023:
Today, seniors Rohan Bhowmik, Alexander Lan, Krish Maniar, Ashley Ruan, Deeya Viradia and Sally Zhu were named Top 300 Scholars in the 2023 Regeneron Science Talent Search. This year’s scholars were chosen from 1,949 applicants from 48 states. Each of the scholars will receive a $2,000 cash prize and schools will receive $2,000 for every scholar enrolled. The top 40 finalists for this year’s competition will be named on Jan. 24, with the final stage of the competition set to take place in Washington, D.C., in March.
On Nov. 28, Simar Bajaj ’20 received the Foreign Press Association’s Science Story of the Year award, for a piece he penned for The Guardian in August about pig-to-human heart transplants. Bajaj, who currently attends Harvard University, went to London to receive the award in person. A video has been posted of Bajaj receiving the award, as well as some of his remarks. The FPA is the world’s oldest press organization, dating back to 1888. Bajaj is the youngest awardee in the organization’s history.
Rory Hu, grade 7, was today announced as a top award winner in the 2022 Broadcom MASTERS competition, taking home the $10,000 Department of Defense STEM Talent Award. Her project for the competition studied how tea polyphenols and caffeine may help honeybees improve their learning and memory capabilities, as well as mitigate the harm from pesticides. More about Hu and her project can be found on her project page at the Society for Science website.
As one of the 30 finalists, Hu will receive a $500 prize and is eligible to win one of several top prizes, totaling more than $100,000. The finals are scheduled for this fall.
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Sept. 8, 2022
Yesterday, eight Harker students were named top 300 scholars in the 2022 Broadcom MASTERS competition, one of the country’s top middle school science competitions. The students were chosen from more than 1,800 applicants, and were among the top 10 percent at science fairs affiliated with the Society for Science.
Ninth graders Ava Bhowmik, Gupta Disha, Sofia Shah, Tanvi Sivakumar, Jonathan Szeto and Kallie Wang; eighth grader Jayden Liu; and seventh grader Rory Hu each will receive a $125 prize and are eligible to become top 30 finalists, who will be announced Sept. 21. Finalists will then be chosen for a variety of awards, totaling more than $100,000 in prizes.
The team of Alex Hu ’22 and rising seniors Rohan Bhowmik, Anthony Tong and team captain Sabrina Zhu performed admirably at the finals of the 2022 Tests of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition, which took place in late June in Dallas. In this annual competition, students form teams to solve real-world engineering problems. Their roller coaster project won them third place in Presentation, fourth place in Design/Build and fifth place on the exam portion. Just 25 of the 625 teams who participated this year were invited to compete in the national event.
On April 22, junior Nicholas Wei was awarded the 2022 California Science & Engineering Fair Project of the Year, which is given to the top high school researcher each year among thousands of science fair participants. With a prize of $5,000, this is the top honor from the CSEF. His research project, “Investigating Epigenetic Modifications in Chromosome Structure in Cardiomyocyte Differentiation Mechanisms for Heart Disease Treatment,” was sponsored by upper school biology teacher Matthew Harley.
Nicholas also received the Grand Prize, Best of Championship in Biological Sciences at the Synopsys Championship and was named an Intel Science and Engineering Fair finalist.
“I’ve been at Harker since kindergarten, and I can truly say that it is the Harker community and learning environment such as the Harker Research Symposium that has helped define who I am now,” Wei said, “a scholar greatly interested in pursuing both the life sciences and classical studies.”