The 74th annual Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair awarded over $600,000 in awards, scholarships and prizes to middle and high school students, including the Urban School Challenge, of which JAX was the major sponsor. The special fair category serves the state’s lowest performing Alliance District schools.
The statewide science and engineering fair is open to all 7th through 12th-grade students residing, or enrolled, in Connecticut schools and Fishers Island. The program works to attract young people to careers in science and engineering while developing skills essential to critical thinking. Through science fair participation, students are encouraged to pursue independent work using proper research methods.
This year 14 JAX employees reviewed the students’ research methods and conducted virtual interviews as CSEF judges. A special thank you to the following JAX volunteers: Francesca Menghi, Matthew Coxe, Sarah Wojiski, Feyza Yilmaz, Christine Goldfarb, Kathleen Teter, Alexis Garretson, Britt Callahan, Erica Gerace, Alexa Wnorowski, Jason Tran, Bill Flynn, Dacheng Zhao and Izabela Puskarz.
Urban School Challenge Middle School Awardees:
Catalace
Ethan Joseph, Grade 7. Town: West Haven
1st Place Middle School - $300 and Plaque, Medallion
Model System Design For Technology-Assisted Insulin Regulation
Sydney Borst, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
2nd Place Middle School - $200 and Plaque, Medallion
Impact of prediction methods on the percentage accuracy of a stock forecast
Alejandro Mayorga, Grade 7. Town: Danbury
3rd Place Middle School - $100 and Plaque, Medallion
Design and Testing of an Integrated 360 Degree Pi Camera System for Deep Well Rescue Mission Award Sandhya Sudarsanam, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
4th Place Middle School - Plaque, Medallion
Mealybug Management 101 A Study of Household Plant Pest Treatment Options
Avni Manish, Grade 7. Town: Newington
5th Place Middle School - Plaque, Medallion
How do fears change with age?
Shiloh Gutierrez, Grade 8. Town: Bridgeport
Alyssa Cruz, Grade 8. Town: Bridgeport
Middle School Finalist - Medallion
The Effects of Ice Mitigation Strategies on Livestock Waterers Award
Sophia Blumenreich, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Middle School Finalist – Medallion
Benefit of Granular and Mesh Filters on Concentrations of Microplastics in Water Award
Krrish Brahmkshatriya, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Benjamin Miller, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Alexander Herzegovitch, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Middle School Finalist - Medallion
It's not a pro, It's a robot?
Gavin Dusel, Grade 7. Town: Newington
Middle School Finalist – Medallion
Flocculants to Mitigate Harmful Algal Blooms (HABS)
Saket Aliminate, Grade 8. Town: Milford
Middle School Finalist – Medallion
Which Type of Rocket will affect a Rocket's Time, Height, and Distance the Greatest?
Nivrith Ananth Iyer, Grade 8. Town: West Haven
Parth Gokhale, Grade 8. Town: Milford.
Middle School Finalist – Medallion
The Effects of Run-off Pollutants on the Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) model C. Vulgaris Award
Adithi Variar, Grade 7. Town: Wallingford
Middle School Finalist – Medallion
Urban School Challenge High School Awardees:
Implementing Nontoxic Modified Magnetic Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Enhanced Biochar Filtration for the Efficient Removal of Emerging Contaminants in an Aqueous Solution
Snigtha Mohanraj, Grade 9. Town: Ansonia
1st Place High School - $500 and Plaque, Medallion
Quantifying the interspecific impacts of the native relationships of the Long Island Sound
Sarah Davis, Grade 12. Town: Trumbull
2nd Place High School - $400 and Plaque, Medallion
Optimizing Desalinization of Industrial Brine Through Temperature Swing Solvent Extraction
Jackson Warters Grade 12. Town: Milford
3rd Place High School - $ 300 and Plaque, Medallion
Piezoelectric Wind Harvesting Electrical Energy Conversion
Dylan Pueschel, Grade 12. Town: Hebron
John Watrous, Grade 12. Town: Hartford
4th Place High School - Plaque, Medallion
The Use of Secondary Plant Metabolites to Reduce Pseudogymnoascus destructans Transmission Among North American Bats
Grace Hilton, Grade 12. Town: Fairfield
5th Place High School - Plaque, Medallion
The Use of Sodium Bicarbonate as a Local Buffer to Decrease Ocean Acidity in Localized Areas to Increase the Oyster Growth
Kennedy Carr, Grade 12 Town: Fairfield
Senior High Finalist – Medallion
Absorbing High Concentrations of Nitrogen using Biochar as a Preventative Measure to Mitigate the Dinoflagellate Karenia brevis
Student(s) Kelsey Farber, Grade 12. Town: Fairfield.
Senior High Finalist – Medallion
Utilizing Rooftop Gardens as a Means of Geothermal Energy Through Ground to Air Heat Transfer Systems Award
Aidan King, Grade 12. Town: Milford
Senior High Finalist – Medallion
Comparing Various Machine Learning Models while Predicting Taxonomy using Codon Combinations Shriya Jonnalagadda, Grade 10. Town: Danbury
Senior High Finalist – Medallion
Computational Hydroponics
Zahrion Watson, Grade 11. Town: Bloomfield
Vanessa Weir, Grade 11. Town: Hartford
Khaley-shai Wyndham, Grade 11. Town: Windsor
Senior High Finalist - Medallion