North Central Regional JSHS

2020 AWARDS

REGIONAL JSHS COMPETITORS

By March 20, 2020, 68 students presented 54 original research projects by submitting audio files with their slideshows and research papers, instead of attending a live event on March 26. MAS congratulates all these students for their perseverance and flexibility in response to our current global health crisis

National JSHS AWARDS

Finalists

National JSHS offers these prestigious awards to five finalists from each region. The award typically includes an expense-paid trip to present at the National JSHS, a program that brings together over 400 participants for educational and scientific exchange. First and second place finalists typically present their research formally/orally and the other finalists present posters. The top three regional awards include scholarships, payable upon matriculation and meeting scholarship conditions.

National JSHS was held virtually this year and winners were announced April 17, 2020. Two of our Regional Finalists won awards at the national level. See below.

FIRST PLACE ($2,000): Vaughn Hughes (Minnetonka High School / Abbott Labs), Using Environmental Enhancements to Increase Vitamin-C Production in Spinacia oleracea in Varied Agricultural Environments

SECOND PLACE ($1,500): Mina Mandic (St. Paul Academy), Theoretical Math Exploring the Wonders of the Early Universe: Green Pea Galaxies and Light Flux

MAS congratulates Mina for winning FIRST PLACE in her category and a $12,000 scholarship at National JSHS!

THIRD PLACE ($1,000): Quentin Hughes (Minnetonka High School / Abbott Labs), An Active Role for Machine Learning in the Diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation

FOURTH PLACE: James Clinton & Nathan Rockafellow (Breck School), Spudfinder 6500: Creating a radar-based system for pre-harvest potato yield mapping, year two

FIFTH PLACE: Benjamin Yan (Century High School), Automated Computer Vision and Machine Learning Workflows in Radiation Treatment Planning

MAS congratulates Benjamin for winning a “Peer Review Award” at National JSHS.

Significant awards are available to students who compete in the national symposium. The Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force jointly sponsor the following undergraduate scholarship awards for national students: six $12,000 1st place awards, six $8,000 2nd place awards, and six $4,000 3rd place awards. 

Regional JSHS Teacher AwaRD

Sponsored by National JSHS, this $500 award is given to a teacher who has demonstrated excellence in mentoring, honoring the individual teacher and their school's contributions to advancing student participation in research. 

Cynthia Welsh, Cloquet High School

HONORABLE MENTION

MAS also congratulates the following students for making it to the callback round of judging at the regional level.

Roopkamal Chahal (Intermediate School District #287), Medicine and Health; Behavioral and Social Sciences; Cellular and Molecular Biology

Anthony Chen (St. Paul Academy and Summit School), The Effects of Short Term Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation on Diatom Photosynthetic Productivity

Maya Choi (St. Paul Academy and Summit School), Degradation of Microplastics: The Efficacy of Various Bacteria in Breaking Down Microplastics in the Environment

Kyle Ledermann (Robert J Elkington Middle School), Custom Power Solutions: Exploring the efficiencies of a stackable 3-phase brushless motor design

Richard Xiong (Century High School), Economical and Renewable Bioethanol Production from Waste Banana Peels

ADDITIONAL SPONSORED AWARDS

GWIS EXCELLENCE IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING Award 

GWIS gives an award to four female students that demonstrate excellence in scientific writing.

Boatemaa Agyeman-Mensah & Rachel Gunderson (Breck School), Healing a Broken Heart: Investigating Endoglin as a Novel Regulator of Heart Muscle Cell Regeneration

Nabiha Imtiaz (Duluth), The Effect of Age, Gender, and Education on HPV (Human papillomavirus) and MMR (Mumps, Measles, Rubella) Vaccination Rates

Abigail Post (Hankinson Education Foundation/ Hankinson Public School), Smoke Particulates: An Analysis of Reduction Methods Using GC-MS and Laser Particle Counting

Elizabeth Schwint & Annika Nosbush (Sleepy Eye St. Mary's High School), The Effects of Tillage Depth on the Transmission of Nitrates Through Soil Macropores

Outstanding Achievement Awards 

The Minnesota Academy of Science awards six students who conduct exceptional scientific research and presentation of their results a certificate and a $50 prize. 

Biomedical Sciences: Sahana Mangipudi (Breck School), The Missing Link: Glycoengineering MSCs for Targeted Cancer Drug Delivery

Chemistry: Richard Xiong (Century High School), Economical and Renewable Bioethanol Production from Waste Banana Peels

Engineering and Technology: Kyle Ledermann (Robert J Elkington Middle School), Custom Power Solutions: Exploring the efficiencies of a stackable 3-phase brushless motor design

Environmental Sciences: Grace Finnerty (Cotter High School), The Impact of Bees on Bitter Pit as measured by seed count

Life Sciences: Sophia LeMire (Sacred Heart School), The Effects of Glucose Metabolism on Memory and Food Consumption

Math and Computer Sciences; Computer Engineering: Akshay Nambudiripad & Mani Chadaga (Saint Paul Central High School), Development of WALTER: A Route Planning System That Analyzes Accident Data to Determine Safer Driving Routes in Saint Paul, Minnesota

Medicine and Health; Behavioral and Social Sciences; Cellular and Molecular Biology: Roopkamal Chahal (ISD #287), Analyzing Achievement: Using ArcGIS and student survey to model correlations between student demographics and academic success

Physics and Astronomy; Theoretical Math: Supriya Roy (Mayo Clinic), Evaluating the Stability of Resonance in Exoplanet Systems

Presidential Awards

The Minnesota Academy of Science recognizes one student in each category for excellent research with a certificate and letter of congratulations.

Biomedical Sciences: Mary O'Grady & Ava Raffel (Breck School), A Not so Muscular, Muscular Dystrophy? Discovering abnormal neural differentiation in FSHD-affected stem cells

Chemistry: George Cai (ISD #287), Citric Acid Cross-linked Nanocellulose Membranes for Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Engineering and Technology: Abigail Smith (Cloquet Senior High School), Analyzing the effect of micro-perforated acoustical tape vs. acoustical tiles on the sound intensity in an art room, using spectral analysis, and three dimensional acoustical modeling software

Environmental Sciences: Anthony Chen (St. Paul Academy and Summit School), The Effects of Short Term Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation on Diatom Photosynthetic Productivity

Life Sciences: Hemanth Asirvatham (Northeastern University, Boston), Analyzing Long-Term Behavioral Patterns in D. melanogaster Larvae

Math and Computer Sciences; Computer Engineering: Gautham Nair (Sciment), Understanding the effects of disinhibition: Analyzing the impact of synaptic disinhibition on neural activities and patterns

Medicine and Health; Behavioral and Social Sciences; Cellular and Molecular Biology: Teresa Le-Vu (Burnsville High School), The Impact of Music on Heart Rate

Physics and Astronomy; Theoretical Math: Supriya Roy (Mayo Clinic), Evaluating the Stability of Resonance in Exoplanet Systems