EP teens excel at Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair

Several middle and high school students living in Eden Prairie were honored at the 87th annual Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF), held on March 22 at St. Paul RiverCentre.

More than 350 middle and high school students from 58 schools across Minnesota competed in the event organized by the Minnesota Academy of Science (MAS). Participating students advanced to this event from regional science fairs.

“The State Science Fair showcases Minnesota students who are asking really interesting questions and using science and engineering practices to solve problems in their communities,” said Lara Maupin, MAS Executive Director, in a press release about the event. “I was impressed and inspired by students’ innovation and knowledge, and clearly, our judges were too. There’s a reason they love giving their time to this event.”

Over 40 companies and organizations gave awards valued at more than $20,000.

Seven EP teens honored

Several students who live in Eden Prairie won Grand Awards for their projects, and some also won additional honors.

The Grand Awards recognize excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) research at the middle and high school levels. The top 5% of projects presented at SSEF receive the Gold Award. The next 10% of projects receive the Silver Award and the next 15% of projects receive the Bronze Award. Projects are ranked according to judge scores and the competitiveness of the category in which students present.

Olivia Zhou, a Minnetonka Middle School East student, won a Gold Award for her project, “Growing Marshmallows.”

Zhou was also the middle school winner of the Medtronic Technical Achievement Award: Science & Engineering, which also garnered her a $500 prize. This award recognizes students whose projects demonstrate excellence through imagination and inventiveness, tackling a challenging technical question, rigorous scientific inquiry and execution, and the potential to solve a technical problem. 

Zhou was also honored by the Society for Science & Thermo Fisher Scientific, which recognized her project and qualified her to apply for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.

Yash Dagade, a senior at Eden Prairie High School, won a Silver Award for his project, “SkyWindFarm Harnessing High Altitude Wind Power in a Scalable Manner.” Dagade also won first place for Best Display of Mechanical Engineering from the American Society of Plumbing Engineers, which came with a $350 prize. This award is given to students at the high school level whose projects display the best use of mechanical engineering.

Dagade also won the Hamline University Department of Physics Excellence in Renewable Energy and Sustainability Award, recognizing high school students whose projects excel in utilizing renewable energy and driving sustainability initiatives. The prize is a certificate and a $100 scholarship toward a Hamline Physics Summer Camp.

Shreshth Shrivastava, a senior at Eden Prairie High School, won a Silver Award for his project, “AccuCellAI: A transformative tool for diagnosing and classifying hematological diseases using convolutional neural networks that demonstrates improved speed, accuracy, and transportability.”

Shrivastava was also awarded the second place high school project for the Beckman Coulter Award for Excellence in Science, with a $200 prize. In addition, he won Gateway Fiber’s Data Visionary Award, which recognizes projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation and creativity in the display and visualization of data and includes a $250 award.

Shagun Shrivastava, who attends Central Middle School, won a Silver Award for her project, “In Search of Sound: Creating Solutions for Sound Localization Challenges Using MicroBit Architecture to Aid Spatial Hearing Loss.”

She was also honored by the Society for Science & Thermo Fisher Scientific, which recognized her project and qualified her to apply for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.

Milan Darji of Minnetonka High School won a Bronze Award for his project, “A novel use of RFdiffusion, an AI denoising diffusion probabilistic model, to design scaffold proteins.”

Darji was also the third-place winner of the 3M Science Applied to Life Award, which earned a $200 prize. This award acknowledges students whose projects make a lasting, positive impact on their local or global community through innovation, creativity, and scientific exploration.

William Zhong of Minnetonka High School won a Bronze Award for his project, “Effect of phr1 on KaiC domain-containing protein gene in Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1.”

Edward Ginter, a student at Minnetonka Middle School East, won a Bronze Award for his project, “Pick the Right Pickleball: Examining Varying Pickleball Bounce Heights.”

A complete list of winners can be found here.