The 75th annual Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair awarded over $500,000 in awards, scholarships and prizes to middle and high school students, including the Urban School Challenge, of which JAX was the major sponsor. This special category recognizes the state’s lowest performing Alliance District schools.
The statewide science and engineering fair is open to all seventh 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, 25 JAX employees — the highest number of JAX volunteers in a single year to-date — reviewed the students’ research methods and conducted virtual interviews as CSEF judges. A special thank you to the following JAX volunteers: Samir Amin, Lindsay Burnside, Alexander Calderon, Britt Callahan, Sara Cassidy, Matthew Coxe, Paul Gabriel, Erica Gerace, Christine Goldfarb, Minghao Gong, Ryan Gorham, Courtney Loring, Efthymios Motakis, Patrick Ng, Evelyn Ordones, Madison Pechulis, Izabela Puskarz, Gabriel Rech, Priya Shanbhag, Sabriya Syed, Etsuko Watanabe, Sarah Wojiski, Feyza Yilmaz and Dacheng Zhao.
Urban School Challenge Middle School Awardees:
Design and Implementation of a Novel Machine Learning-Based System Utilizing Feature Extraction for Precise Cervical Cancer Detection via Biopsy Sample
Ethan Joseph, Grade 8. Town: West Haven
1st Place Middle School — $300 and Trophy, Medallion
A Project to Benefit All of the Community, with Dual-Language Stock Market Course and ML Stock Price Predictor, Focusing on the Latino and Hispanic Community
Alejandro Mayorga and Matthew Guzman, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
2nd Place Middle School — $200 and Trophy, Medallion
Investigating the Effectiveness of Biochar in Remediating Soil Contamination by Heavy Metals and Hydrocarbons
Sahithi Aliminate, Grade 8. Town: Milford
3rd Place Middle School — $100 and Trophy, Medallion
Promoting Outdoors Safety by Altering Pregnancy Tests to Detect Urushiol
Alice Tran, Vianca Villacres and Thomas Lazo, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
4th Place Middle School — Trophy, Medallion
How Does the Application of Granular Sodium Chloride and Liquid Magnesium Chloride Before and During Winter Weather Events Affect the Quality of Nearby Bodies of Water?
Elizabeth D'Agostino, Grade 8. Town: New Britain
5th Place Middle School — Trophy, Medallion
Horror of Waves
Kelci Keddo and Benardette Kudaisi, Grade 8. Town: Bridgeport
Middle School Finalist — Medallion
What is the Effect of Grass Height on Flammability?
Adriana Dickinson, Emma Reda and Hailey Sanchez, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Middle School Finalist — Medallion
The Effect of Plant-Based Natural Pesticides on Tenebrio Molitors
Christopher Mladen, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Middle School Finalist — Medallion
The Benefit of an Automatic Electricity Blocking Device on Preventing Waste of Electricity
Lea Sanchez-Dubois, Shatarupa Mandal and Shezan Alladin, Grade 8. Town: Danbury
Middle School Finalist — Medallion
The Effect of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reef Growth
Adithi Variar, Grade 8. Town: Wallingford
Middle School Finalist —Medallion
Urban School Challenge High School Awardees:
Non-Invasive Pre-screening Approach for Early Detection of The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to Aid in Cervical Cancer Prevention in Underrepresented Demographics
Ana-Lois Davis, Grade 11. Town: Broad Brook
1st Place High School —$500 and Plaque, Medallion
Utilizing the Nematocysts of Cassiopea xamachana as a Bioactive Antiproliferative Compound
Grace Kistner, Grade 12. Town: Fairfield
2nd Place High School —$300 and Plaque, Medallion
Investigating the Application of Statistical Word Analysis to Automatically Select Controls from the NIST Risk Management Framework
Rohan Sahu, Grade 11. Town: Stamford
3rd Place High School —$ 200 and Plaque, Medallion
Investigating the Usage of Treated Nano-Clay Composites for the Efficient Removal of Emerging Contaminants in an Aqueous Solution
Snigtha Mohanraj, Grade 10. Town: Ansonia
4th Place High School —Plaque, Medallion
Spiral Redirect of Heat Exchange Flow Through a Unique Centrifugal Baffle Coupling
Erika Pinto, Grade 12. Town: Bridgeport
5th Place High School —Plaque, Medallion
A Novel Multi-Trophic Bio-Filter Apparatus to Remove Point Source, Anthropogenic Eutrophication from Waste Treatment Outflows
Tyler Lilya, Grade 12. Town: Stratford
Senior High Finalist —Medallion
Disruption of Quorum Sensing Processes in Gram Negative Bacteria by Blocking the AI-2 Pathway
John Murray, Grade 12. Town: Southport
Senior High Finalist —Medallion
Using Magnetic Fields to Direct Crystallization of Calcium Carbonate to Emulate the Growth of Trabeculae Post Bone Fracture
Jonah Rosenbaum, Grade 12. Town: Fairfield
Senior High Finalist —Medallion
The Effect of a Calcium Chloride Solution on the Coagulation of Sodium Alginate for the Implementation in Cultures of Cyanobacteria
Temiladeoluwa Adeniran, Seymour, and Mari Arnold, Stratford. Grade 10
Senior High Finalist —Medallion
An Analysis of the Efficient Blockage of RFID Readers Based on the Thickness, Distance, and Density of Each RFID Reader Obstruction Material
Nivrith Ananth Iyer, Grade 9. Town: West Haven
Senior High Finalist —Medallion