Secondary students sent 172 projects to the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair, earning an impressive number of awards and special prizes.

By Rachel McReynolds

Frisco ISD students submitted 172 projects to the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair in February, including 105 from middle schools and 67 from high schools.

Twenty-three FISD students who were top finishers at the Dallas fair qualified for the Texas State Science and Engineering Fair in late March. Several projects also received special awards.

First-place winners in each category compete in a round of grand prize judging to determine the best of the fair. Fowler seventh grader Anya Mahesh’s project, “Nail Disease Detection using CNN, won Physical Science Grand Prize Runner Up in the Junior Division, meaning her project was the second best out of 432 Junior Division projects.

Every FISD middle school project earned nomination to the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge, as well, by placing in the top 10% of sixth, seventh and eighth grade projects.

The DRSEF is a nonprofit organization that holds an annual science fair for secondary students from public, charter, private and home schools. The impressive performance of Frisco ISD students in this competition further underscores its dedication to providing high-quality curricular opportunities.

By the numbers

172 - Total FISD projects (67 high school and 105 middle school)

259 - Total FISD students (88 high school and 171 middle school)

22% of the FISD high school projects placed

22% of the FISD middle school projects placed

8 - First place awards (2 high school and 6 middle school)

6 - Second place awards (1 high school and 5 middle school)

9 - Third place awards (6 high school and 3 middle school)

2 - Fourth place awards (middle school)

14 - Honorable mentions (6 high school and 8 middle school)

Best of luck in the next round of competition!

State Qualifiers, Senior Division

Jahnavi Sharma of Frisco High School

First Prize for “SARCOMA-Net:Personalized Sarcoma Therapies through Spatial-Transcriptomic Biomarker Analysis and Variational Autoencoder Drug Generation” in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category

Sabari Meenakshi Nagarajan and Alan Christopher Rajkumar of Liberty High School

First Prize from NASA for “PhytoLotus: A Novel Method of Phytoremediation Using Nelumbo Lutea to Renew Water Bodies Affected by Eutrophication” in the Plant Sciences category

Prince Nallamothula of Centennial High School

Second Prize for “Enhancing Efficiency in Quantum Dot Solar Cells through Quantum Computational Simulations” in the Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design category

Joon Lee of Frisco High School

Third Prize for “Rover Engineered to Evaluate Impacts of Microclimatic Parameters on Pediatric Asthma in Dallas ISD Schools” in the Earth and Environmental Science category

State Qualifiers, Junior Division

Shriya Suresh Kumar of Pioneer Heritage Middle School

First Prize for “How can ML help diagnose a patient's disease at an early stage?” in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category

Saloni Khanna of Pioneer Heritage Middle School

First Prize for “Ocean Acidification Impacts and Possible Plant Solutions” in the Earth and Environmental Science category

Divyam Desai and Agamveer Singh Sandhu of Hunt Middle School

First Prize for “Foundation Tilt Prevention System” in the Embedded Systems category

Vidhyut Iyer and Nilay Yerramsetti of Nelson Middle School

First Prize for “Can we build an amphibious device that is capable of operating both in aerial and aquatic environments? (Project Osprey)” in the Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics category

Anya Mahesh of Fowler Middle School

First Prize for “Nail Disease Detection using CNN” in the Systems Software category

Anushka Chattopadhyay of Lawler Middle School

First Prize for “Bone Regeneration Scaffolds that can Detect Cancer Environments through a Glucose, pH-Responsive Hydrogel Mechanism for Triggered Drug Release for the aftermath of Bone Cancer Treatment and Personalized Medicine” in the Translational Medical Science category

Manasvi Prasanna and Shazneen Sheik of Pioneer Heritage Middle School

Second Prize for “Moodio: An Emotional Support Application” in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category

Nihal Jayanth of Lawler Middle School

Second Prize for “Smart Medicine Pill Reminder System using Arduino Uno R3, Load Cell and DS3231 RTC Module” in the Embedded Systems category

Sriram Peddinti, Ayush Dhargalkar and Armaan Nazir of Nelson Middle School

Second Prize for “What Shape has the Most Structural Integrity?” in the Mathematics category

Arjun Jakkamreddy, Samit Mohnot and Rishik Vanka of Lawler Middle School

Second Prize for “Smartphone-Integrated Retinal Imaging and Analysis System Utilizing Neural Networks” in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category

Alaayna Ranjan of Vandeventer Middle School

Second Prize for “Nanocurc Gel for Smart Wound Biosensing and Healing” in the Translational Medical Science category

Special Awards, Senior Division

Prince Nallamothula of Centennial High School

2nd Place from the Directed Energy Professional Society for “Enhancing Efficiency in Quantum Dot Solar Cells through Quantum Computational Simulations”

Yorika Ohashi of Frisco High School

Award for Mathematics from MU Alpha Theta for “Observing the patterns of prime numbers powers”

Shravan Anand of Independence High School

1st Place in the Qorvo Young Innovator Awards from Qorvo for “Rocket flow: Understanding Drag Reduction through Geometry Analysis”

Sanjana Rajaram of Centennial High School

2nd Place in the Qorvo Young Innovator Awards from Qorvo for “Alternative Approach to Hypersonic Threat Mitigation Using Properties of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramic Carbon Composites”

Nitya Anam of Liberty High School

Kathryn and Ashley H. Priddy Award from the Southwestern Medical Foundation for “Mathematical Modeling of Lipid Dynamics in Niemann-Pick Disease Type C: A Step Towards Optimized Therapies”

Nitya Anam and Aanya Roy of Liberty High School

1st Place from the Dallas County Medical Society in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category

Jahnavi Sharma of Frisco High School

Regeneron Biomedical Science Award from Regeneron and the Society for Science for “SARCOMA-Net:Personalized Sarcoma Therapies through Spatial-Transcriptomic Biomarker Analysis and Variational Autoencoder Drug Generation”

Special Awards, Junior Division

Medhansh Sharma of Wilkinson Middle School

ASA Award for Statistical Excellence, Junior, from the American Statistical Association for “Advancing Brain Tumor Diagnosis Through Deep Learning: A Novel Approach Implementing Hybrid Meta-Vision Transformer Architecture with Uncertainty Estimation for Accurate Brain Tumor Classification”

Ankur Kallur, Harish Karthi and Taran Katpalli of Lawler Middle School

2nd Place from the Directed Energy Professional Society for “Smart Object Detection For The Visually Impaired”

Adit Tandra of Stafford Middle School

1st Place Junior Division from the McKinney Amateur Radio Club, Inc. for “Study of Solar Flares and Their Effect on Earth”

Nihal Jayanth of Lawler Middle School

2nd Place, Best Electronics or Computing Project, Junior Division from Texas Instruments for “Smart Medicine Pill Reminder System using Arduino Uno R3, Load Cell and DS3231 RTC Module”