9 Indian Americans Among 40 Finalists in Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021
- Finalists were selected from 1,760 highly qualified entrants who completed an original research project and extensive application process.
At least 9 Indian Americans are among 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. “The finalists were selected from 1,760 highly qualified entrants, all of whom completed an original research project and extensive application process,” Regeneron said in a press release. Finalists’ projects span a diverse range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related topics, including diagnostic imaging to help assess the severity of COVID-19, examining the impact of e-cigarettes on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) development, and creating a new way to filter toxins more effectively from wastewater.
Indian American finalists include:
Laalitya Acharya of William Mason High School, Mason, Ohio (Project Title: Nereid: Using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Approach, an AI Technique, to Rapidly and Accurately Detect Microbial Contamination that May Cause Water-Borne Diseases); Akhilesh Balasingam of Archbishop Mitty High School, San Jose, California (Project Title: A Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulator for Multi-Terminal RRAM Devices with Applications to Brain-Inspired Computing); Gopal Goel of Krishna Homeschool, Portland, Oregon (Project Title: Discrete Derivative Asymptotics of the β-Hermite Eigenvalues); Vedanth Iyer of Sunset High School, Portland, Oregon (Project Title: First-Principles Characterization of a Novel Chromium Doped Vanadyl-Oxide Based Cathode for Higher Energy and Efficiency Lithium-Ion Batteries); Eshani Jha of Lynbrook High School, San Jose, California (Project Title: Thiol Functionalized and Manganese Dioxide Doped Biochar for the Removal of Toxic Organic and Inorganic Contaminants from Water); Anushka Sanyal of Homestead High School, Cupertino, California (Project Title: Intronic RNA Lariats Protect Against Neurodegenerative Disease Related Protein Aggregation); Alay Shah of Plano West Senior High School, Plano, Texas (Project Title: Identifying Eye-Movement Patterns in Neurological Disorders to Assess Cognitive and Motor Function); Fareed Shariff of Mills E. Godwin High School, Richmond, Virginia (Project Title: ELMOPP: An Application of Graph Theory and Machine Learning to Traffic Light Coordination); and Vetri Vel of Bangor High School, Bangor, Maine (Project Title: Real-Time Fall Detection System for the Elderly Using Thermal Imaging and Deep Learning).
The finalists will participate in a virtual competition from March 10-17, 2021, where they will undergo a rigorous virtual judging process to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards. They will also have an opportunity to interact with leading scientists and display their projects to the public during a virtual event on March 14. The finalists are each awarded at least $25,000, and the top 10 awards range from $40,000 to $250,000.