The regional Science Bowl held at the NASA AMES Research Center in March was won by Harker’s team of Rishabh Chandra, Jonathan Ma and Michael Zhao, all grade 8, and Aneesh Samineni and David Zhu, both grade 7. This team will be headed to Washington, D.C., in late April to compete at the national competition. “The students have worked extremely hard to earn this title and deserve every bit of this success,” said Vandana Kadam, middle school mathematics department chair.
Upper school students Matthew Huang, grade 9, Stephanie Chen, grade 10 and Christopher Fu, also grade 10, coached the middle school students in preparation for the competition, visiting the middle school campus on Fridays after school. “They have put in an enormous amount of time, effort and energy into training the team and taking them to the top spot,” Kadam said. “They deserve the kudos along with the participants.”
In late March, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Apurva Tandon and Emily Chu, all grade 11, Monica Kumaran, grade 10, and Ayush Midha, grade 9, will travel with science department chair Anita Chetty and upper school biology teacher Gary Blickenstaff to Cambridge University for the first Triple Helix Science in Society Conference.
The conference is held by the Cambridge Chapter of The Triple Helix, a nonprofit organization that publishes scientific articles by university students from all over the world. Harker is the first, and so far only, high school chapter for the organization, and will be the only U.S. high school represented at the conference. The students and teachers will be attending the conference, which takes place April 5, with students from other U.K. private schools, and will have the chance to attend a panel debate, prepare posters to present their own research and more.
The Harker School is proud to have many students participating in the FIRST Lego League (FLL), a program for students aged 9-16 that releases a new FLL Challenge every September. Part of each challenge is the Robot Game, in which students participate by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field. Another integral part of the challenge are the FLL Core Values, which students must be guided by throughout the duration of their projects. These include learning together, honoring the spirit of friendly competition and displaying gracious professionalism and cooperation in everything they do.
Five grade 6 students from Harker formed a team called The Fruitest Five, and took home top prizes for the Robot Game and for their commitment to the core values. Kavita Tankha, parent of team member Aliesa Bahri, said, “The Robot Performance award goes to the team with the most points earned by completing robot missions, and the Core Values award is given for teamwork and gracious professionalism. The judges called out the ‘girls in pink’ for their enthusiasm, inclusiveness and teamwork.” The other members of Fruitest Five, Anooshree Sengupta, Aria Coalson, Maya Kumar and Jessica Susai, along with Sengupta, overcame a nervous moment early in the competition when a loose connection in their robot caused it to stop working. Everything was smooth sailing from there on out, and the team came out on top, moving them to the East Bay Championship Round.
January 15, 2012:
Several news outlets have published or broacast stories on the 29 Bay Area Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalists:
The UC Santa Cruz Astronomy and Astrophysics web page has a story noting four semi-finalists, including three Harker students worked on their projects while part of the UC Santa Cruz Science Internship Program.
January 11, 2012:
For the second year in a row, Harker broke the record for Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists in California, when 11 students, all of them in grade 12, were named at a morning assembly on Jan. 11. Prag Batra, Lucy Cheng, Nicole Dalal, Govinda Dasu, Michelle Deng, Vishesh Gupta, Revanth Kosaraju, Ramya Rangan, Pavitra Rengarajan, Kathryn Siegel and Albert Wu all received a $1,000 prize for the projects they submitted to the contest. This year’s competition had 1,839 entrants from nearly 500 high schools in 44 states, the District of Columbia and overseas. Of those, 300 students were selected as semifinalists. Only one school had more semifinalists than Harker in the entire country.
Last year, Harker broke the record for California with seven semifinalists, two of whom, Nikhil Parthasarathy ’11 and Rohan Mahajan ’11, were named finalists, making Harker the only school in the nation to produce two Intel finalists.
On Jan. 25, 40 finalists will be chosen to go to Washington, D.C. in March to compete for more than $1.25 million in awards from the Intel Foundation.
The students’ projects are as follows:
“Donor and Epitope Specific Variations in Immune Gene Expression in CMV Dextramer Positive CD8 T Cells,” by Nicole Dalal
“De Novo Splice From Discovery from RNA-Seq Data,” by Ramya Rangan
“Detailed Chemical Abundance Patterns of Andromeda Dwarf Satellites from Cadded Spectra,” by Lucy Cheng
“An Ontological Bayesian Framework for Context-Specific Navigation and Discovery of Biomedical Knowledge,” by Michelle Deng
“Determining the Genetic Target of Drugs Using a Synthetic Lethality Map,” by Kathryn Siegel
“Neuroanatomical and Cell Population Abnormalities Found in Mouse Model for Human Chromosome,” by Pavitra Rengaragan
“Role of Epidermal Hif-1 ALPHA in the Inflammatory and Angiogenic Response to Ischemia in Diabetic Wound Healing,” by Revanth Kosaraju
“Storage of Active Biological Compounds in Silk Films,” by Prag Batra
“Discovery of 16 Nearby Brown Dwarf Candidates in WISE Preliminary Release Data,” by Govinda Dasu
“Multi-net Bayesian Networks for Integrative Genomic Discovery: Application to the Epistatic Interactions for HIV,” by Albert Wu
“Use of Discretization Approach in Autonomous Control of an Active Extrados/Intrados Camber Morphing Wing,” by Vishesh Gupta
In late October, Lucy Cheng, grade 12, and Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 11, were named regional finalists in this year’s Siemens competition. In addition, Harker also produced a total of six regional semifinalists: Michelle Deng, Alex Hsu, Revanth Kosaraju, Chaitanya Malladi, Ramya Rangan and Lucy Xu, all grade 12.
A total of 2,436 students from across the country participated in this year’s competition, submitting 1,541 original research projects and setting a new record. Regional finals begin this week, and the winners of the regional events will be invited to compete at the Siemens National Finals, held Dec. 3-5 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The Siemens Competition, administered every year by the College Board, is one of the leading competitions for high school students performing original research in science, technology in mathematics. Students, both as individual participants and as team members, compete for college scholarships ranging from $1,000 (for regional finalists) to $100,000 (for the top-placing individual or team).
The Harker School recently came in second place nationwide in National Assessment & Testing’s 2011 Fall Startup Event mathematics contest. Coached by math teacher Misael Fisico, upper school students raced to complete 100 problems within a 30-minute time limit.
Several students had outstanding individual performances on the test, which helped boost Harker into second place. Cindy Liu and Rahul Jayaraman tied for 10th place in the grade 9 division. Other freshmen who performed well in this division were Sachin Peddada with 12th place, Ashwath Thirumalai with 18th place and Patrick Lin with 22nd place. Vikram Sundar took ninth place in the grade 10 division, and in the grade 11 division, Ashvin Swaminathan earned 18th place. Patrick Yang placed first in the grade 12 division, and classmate Lucy Cheng took 17th.
Other National Assessment & Testing contests that Harker will be participating in this year include the 2011 Team Scramble, taking place this week, and the 2011 Ciphering Time Trials on Dec. 8.
Despite not doing “anything special to prepare,” said upper school physics teacher Eric Nelson, Harker nonetheless managed to perform impressively in the 2011 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers.
Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 10, was one of the top 10 scorers in his region for the division 2 (advanced) category with a score of 31, nearly 15 points higher than the average score of 16.4. Harker was also one of the highest-scoring schools in its region in the division 2 category, with 130 points.
More than 4,000 students from more than 200 schools in the United States and Canada participated in this year’s competition, which also had participants from China, Japan and Korea.
Two upper school school students participated in the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad last month, sending a junior, Albert Wu, and a sophomore, Ashvin Swaminathan, on to the second round in hopes of advancing to the third round (20 students from the entire U.S.). The first round of tests were taken by 42 Harker students, with Wu and Swaminathan advancing to the national round with the highest scores. The Olympiad, a multiple choice, free response, and lab-based problem-solving chemistry competition is taken across the U.S. to recognize excellence in the study of chemistry. Harker has a track record of being recognized in the competition and advancing to the further rounds.
Wu and Swaminathan took the national test, which was taken by 900 other students across the U.S., and are both hoping to advance to the same level that Vikram Nathan ’09 advanced to, the study camp. From that level, which consists of two weeks of learning and competition, they are hoping to advance again to represent the United States in the international chemistry Olympiad. Let’s wish them luck and congratulate them and the 40 other Harker students on their outstanding performances in the competition.
Radio host Sam Van Zandt of KBAY came to Harker prior to the Synopsys Championship Fair to talk to Harker students about their projects. Listen to the interviews here!
Harker once again won a host of awards at this year’s Synopsys Championship Fair, held March 6-7. Two upper school students, Revanth Kosaraju, grade 11 (“A Novel Perfusion-Based Protocol for Decellularization of Adipose Tissue on a Bioreactor”) and Vikas Bhetanabhotla , grade 9 (“A Theoretical Study of Factors Affecting Molecular Specificity in Hyperpolarized MRI Scans”) both won grand prizes and eligibility for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Bhetanabhotla, a member of the research club, was mentored by Kosaraju.
Harker had many more winners in several different categories at the fair at the high school level. In physics, Prag Batra, grade 11, won a $75 special award and certificate from Varian Medical Systems and a $400 team award from the Genencor Biotechnology Awards along with partner Govinda Dasu, grade 11, who also won the Varian Medical Systems special award. In addition to his grand prize, Bhetanabhotla also won a First Award for individual project in the physics category and certificate of achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center, which included a VIP visit to the facilities. Varun Mohan, grade 9, earned a $100 prize and a certificate from Trimble Navigation, while Avinash Nayak, grade 9, took home a PW460t digital camera from Hewlett-Packard and a second place award with a $75 cash prize and certificate from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. Christopher Sund and Ravi Tadinada, both grade 10, each won First Awards.
Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 10, was Harker’s biggest winner in Environmental Sciences, winning a First Award for individual project, a Certificate of Achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center with a VIP visit, a certificate and medallion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a $50 gift certificate and Certificate of Achievement from the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Zareen Choudhury, grade 9, received an Honorable Mention for her individual project. Payal Modi, grade 10, received the third place award high school award and a $25 prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Daniel Ryan Pak, grade 9, received a certificate of achievement in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize contest, as well as a chance to move on to the competition in Stockholm, Sweden.
In chemistry, Shreya Nathan, grade 12, won a First Award for individual project, a third place $25 prize and certificate from the Society of Vacuum Coaters, a third place award and $100 prize from the Santa Clara Valley local section of the American Chemical Society and a second place award of $75 from the Santa Clara Valley chapter of A Society for Materials (ASM). Suchita Nety, grade 10, earned a Second Award for individual project, a $50 prize from the San Jose State University from the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society and a first place $100 award and certificate from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. Pooja Shah, grade 10, received an Honorable Mention Award and certificate from the ASM Santa Clara Valley chapter.
Winners in the medicine/health/gerontology category included Lucy Cheng and Ramya Rangan, both grade 11, who received an honorable mention for team project, Varun Gudapati, grade 10, who earned an honorable mention for individual project, and Anika Radiya-Dixit, grade 10, winner of a Second Award for individual project.
Frederic Enea, grade 11, took home a Second Award for individual project in the engineering category, along with a certificate of achievement from the United States Army. Other engineering winners were Divyahans Gupta, grade 9, who received a certificate of achievement from Mu Alpha Theta; Vikram Sundar, grade 9, earning a Second Award for individual project as well as a $100 first prize award from Morgan Lewis; and Kiran Vodrahalli, grade 12, who won a First Award for individual project, a $100 first place high school award from the Northern California chapter of the American Vacuum Society, a $50 check and certificate from the Wireless Communications Alliance, a prize package from the United States Air Force (which included a certificate, charging stand, computer backpack and more) and the IEEE Award for Electro-Technology from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Harker had two winners in the biochemistry/microbiology category. Anika Gupta, grade 9, won a Second Award for individual project, while, in addition to his grand prize, Kosaraju earned a First Award for individual project and was a finalist for the Synopsys Outreach Foundation’s n+1 Prize.
In botany, Claudia Tischer, grade 9, received a Second Award for individual project, and in computers/mathematics, Rahul Sridhar, grade 9, won a First Award for individual project, a $75 award and certificate from Varian Medical Systems and a $100 first prize from Morgan Lewis. Abhinav Khanna, grade 11, received a First Award for individual project in the behavioral/social category.
At the middle school level, Sneha Behtanabhotla, grade 6, won a First Award for individual project in the physics category, as well as a certificate of achievement from the Ricoh Corporation and a grades 6-8 certificate of achievement and Office of Naval Research medallion from the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Also in physics, Rishabh Jain and Neil Movva, both grade 8, were given a Second Award for team project, a certificate of achievement from the NASA-Ames Research Center and a VIP visit, and grades 6-8 second place award, with a $75 prize from the Santa Clara Valley chapter of A Society for Materials.
Nikash Shankar, grade 8, came up big in the medicine/health/gerontology category, taking home a First Award for individual project, an Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects, and a Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association Board of Directors Award (Middle School), which included a trip to the state science fair and a $100 cash prize. Classmate Sriram Somasundaram was also a winner in this category, earning a First Award for individual project.
In environmental sciences, eighth grader Vineet Kosaraju received an honorable mention for individual project, a grade 6-9 second place award with a $50 cash prize from the Society of Vacuum Coaters and a first place award from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering, which included a $100 cash prize and a framed certificate.
Andrew Jin and Stanley Xie, both grade 8, took home the First Award for team project in the biochemistry/microbiology category. Classmate Pranav Reddy, meanwhile, won a First Award for individual project, as did Steven Wang, another grade 8 student, who also earned a first place award for grades 6-9, which included a $75 cash prize and a certificate from the Society of Vacuum Coaters.
Samyukta Yagat, grade 8, won a First Award for individual project in botany, where Archana Podury, also grade 8, received an Honorable Mention for individual project.
Sixth grader Amrita Singh earned a Second Award for individual project in the zoology category and also won a second place award from the Northern California branch of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, which included a certificate and a $125 cash prize.
Special credit goes to upper school science teachers Richard Barber and Chris Spenner and middle school science teachers Lorna Claerbout, Ilona Davies, Scott Kley Contini, Benjamin Morgensen, Daniel Sommer and Raji Swaminathan, who were all instrumental in Harker’s success this year.