Team Minnesota Awards at ISEF 2026
On behalf of our sponsors, board of directors, and staff, the Minnesota Academy of Science congratulates all student presenters for their excellent research and presentations in the 2026 ISEF competition!
22 students from were selected from five MN Regional Science Fairs and the MN State Science & Engineering Fair to compete at the 2026 Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair in Phoenix, AZ on May 9-15. ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. More than 1,700 high school students, selected from 365 affiliate fairs in 60+ countries and territories showcase their research at ISEF and compete for more than $7 million in awards and prizes. All Team MN ISEF Finalists won a finalist medal, a trip to compete in Phoenix, Arizona, and a 12-month University-level student Data Classroom license.
Scroll down to learn more about this year’s ISEF Finalists!
ISEF Finalists from Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair
Maraike Fortin (Savage): EBED-049, Dream Mornings - a sleep cycle adaptive alarm clock (raspberry pi based)
Aditi Gandhi (Edina): EBED-082, Continuous Low-Cost Proxy Monitoring System for Chloramine Detection in Indoor Pool Air
John Liu (St. Paul): ENEV-056, Passive Capillary-Evaporative Lithium Pre-Concentration from Dilute Brines Using Functionalized Corn Stalk Pith and Wheat Straw Scaffolds
Evan Morris (New Brighton): CELL-038, SILENCE: On-demand seizure suppression via closed-loop sonogenetics
Vick Tan (Eden Prairie): MATS-052, Colorimetric Arsenic Detection at Micromolar Concentrations and Machine Learning Assisted Development of a Composite Teabag for Arsenic Bioremediation in Drinking Water
ISEF Finalists from the Northeast Minnesota & American Indian Regional Science and Engineering Fair
Finley Holz (Cloquet): EAEV-011, Winter Storm Effect on Wolf (Canis Lupus) Movement on the Fond du Lac Reservation
Ethan Lavan (Cloquet): ENEV-019, Investigating the rate of hydrogen sulfide removal by Manganese GreensandPlus® for use in large-scale wastewater treatment
ISEF Finalists from the Rochester Regional STEM Fair
Rathan Duggirala (Rochester): MATS-023, Toward Safer Nail Cosmetics: A Randomized In Vitro Performance Study of a Novel Natural Biologic Nail Paint - Year 5*
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Aditi Sriram (Rochester): ENBM-032, SonoVascAR: A Vascular Access Aid: Automated Real Time Ultrasound Vessel Detection with Augmented Reality 3D Projection
ISEF Finalist from the Southern Minnesota Regional Science & Engineering Fair
Jasmine Fleming (Garden City): MATS-019, Peeling Away Pollutants in Water with Banana Char
ISEF Finalists from the Twin Cities Regional Science Fairs
Milan Darji (Eden Prairie): BCHM-008, Escaping the Matrix: Identifying ADAMTSL2 as the trigger for irreversible liver fibrosis through protein modeling
Ethan Finch (Afton): TECA-004, ArticuRace: Closing the Global Speech Therapy Gap through a Low-Resource and Interpretable AI Framework
Rohan Kuruvila (Woodbury): ROBO-016, How to detect and remove outliers in 3D point clouds using higher-order geometric cycles
Agustin Orezzoli Robinson (St. Paul): ENEV-027, A Sustainable Pollution Solution: Mycofiltration of Copper, Zinc, and Lead from Vehicle-Derived Runoff Using Pleurotus ostreatus Year 2
Parth Rana (Wayzata): SFTD-015, DeepScope: Real-Time Deepfake Detection Using Biological Plausibility Metrics
Shagun Shrivastava (Eden Prairie): EBED-016, A.W.A.R.E.-Development of an AI-Based Real-Time Wearable Auditory Recognition and Emergency Detection System for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals using Acoustic Analysis
Nyel Uffa (Eden Prairie): MATH-014, Revealing The Fragility Beneath: Engineering Dynamic Multi-Layer Financial Networks for Modeling Systemic Risk and Shock Propagation
Alyssa Wang (Woodbury): MATS-017, Novel green biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using pomegranate peel and their potential application in photothermal therapy for cancer treatment
Isabella Wang (St. Paul): ANIM-015, When Climate Changes, Bees Do Too: Characterization of pollinator foraging behavior under heat stress using remote motion-activated imaging
Huxley Westemeier (Minneapolis): SFTD-014, INTRINSIC: Parameter-Free Private Keystroke Classification with Normalized Relative Compression
Joy Zhou (Maple Grove): BMED-019, The Uneven Distribution of Socioeconomic Stress as a Possible Driver of Racial Smoking Disparities: An NHANES Analysis
ISEF Finalist from the Western MN Regional Science Fair
George Spaeth Jr. (Moorhead): MATH-015
ISEF Grand Awards Winners from Minnesota
Each ISEF category has Grand Awards from 1st - 4th place. Team Minnesota won a combined $28,600 in Grand Awards!
1st Place: Evan Morris
Mary Sue Coleman Award for Life Science Innovation & Impact scholarship
Dudley R. Herschbach SIYSS Award trip to Nobel Peace Prize event
2nd Place: Huxley Westemeier
2nd Place: Ethan Finch
2nd Place: John Liu, Mounds View HS ($2400)
2nd Place: Vick Tan
3rd Place: Milan Darji
3rd Place: Parth Rana
4th Place: Rohan Kuruvila
ISEF Special Award Winners from Minnesota
ISEF Special Awards are given by academic institutions, professional societies, government agencies, and industry leaders dedicated to fostering scientific literacy. Special Award Organizations establish independent judging panels to present specialized awards tailored to their distinct fields. Team Minnesota brought home eight Special Awards, with a combined value of over $59,500!
Nyel Uffa: American Mathematical Society Honorable Mention and One-Year Membership to AMS
Joy Zhou: Arizona State University ISEF Scholarship
Huxley Westemeier: AAAI Membership and School Library Membership - Honorable Mention
Vick Tan: 1st Place, Chemistry and the Law
Huxley Westemeier: Midwest Microelectronics Consortium
Nyel Uffa: Non-Trivial Fellowship Scholarship
John Liu: The Chief of Naval Research Scholarship Award
Maraike Fortin: 1st Place, Patent and Trademark Office Society
Nyel Uffa: The Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications - Honorable Mention
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