McLean, Va. (August 15, 2022) – The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) is pleased to announce its Research Science Institute (RSI) top 5 award winners for oral and top 5 written presentations chosen from 92 participants by an eminent panel of judges at the 39th annual RSI jointly sponsored at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Each of the award winners received $1,000 scholarship awards from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Top 5 Written Presentations:
Shriya Bhat, Plano East Senior High School, Plano, Texas
Cloning and Mutagenesis of the AmpC Gene Encoding for Beta-Lactamase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Identify Potential Allosteric Binding Sites on Beta-Lactamase
Mentor: Dr. Stephen Lory (Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
Michelle Hua, Cranbrook Kingswood School, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
3D Acoustic Simulation and Optimization of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Propagation for Precision Medicine with a Surgical Robot
Mentors: Jose Amich, Raahil Sha (Zeta Surgical Inc.)
Michael Huang, Phillips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts), Guangdong, China
Effective Automated Stellar Substructure Identification through a Supervised Neural Clustering Algorithm
Mentors: Prof. Lina Necib, Xiaowei Ou, Tri Nguyen, Cian Roche (Kavli Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Iliyas Noman, Sofia High School of Mathematics, Sofia, Bulgaria
On Spherical 2-distance Sets in n-Dimensional Space
Mentors: Dr. Tanya Khovanova, Prof. David Jerison, Prof. Ankur Moita, Yuan Yao (MIT Department of Mathematics)
Patrick Wahlig, Falmouth High School, Falmouth, Maine
Towards a System for Modeling the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Sea Scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) in Massachusetts Bay
Mentors: Dr. Pierre F. J. Lermusiaux, Dr. Patrick J. Haley (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Multidisciplinary Simulation, Estimation, and Assimilation Systems)
Top 5 Oral Presentations:
Madeleine de Belloy de Saint Lienard, Lycee Francais de San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Computing the Mosaic Number of Reduced Projections of Knots and Links
Mentor: Mary Stelow (MIT Department of Mathematics)
Shriya Bhat, Plano East Senior High School, Plano, Texas
Cloning and Mutagenesis of the AmpC Gene Encoding for Beta-Lactamase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa to Identify Potential Allosteric Binding Sites on Beta-Lactamase
Mentor: Dr. Stephen Lory (Brigham and Women’s Hospital)
AnAn Desimone, Windsor School, Boston, Massachusetts
Engineering Eukaryotic RNA-Guided Endonuclease for Genome Editing
Mentors: Dr. Feng Zhang, Dr. Makoto Saito (The Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard)
Arvind Seshan, Fox Chapel Area High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Automated Neuron Activity Classification in C. elegans
Mentors: Dr. Vivek Venkatachalam, James Yu (Northeastern University, Physics Department, Venkatachalam Lab)
Alex Wang, Syosset High School, Syosset, New York
Spatially Multiplexed Gold Leaf Electrodes for Affordable Pathogenic Detection
Mentors: Ariel Furst, Marjon Zamani (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chemical Engineering)
In addition, Apoorva Panidapu, a student from Nautilus Academy Homeschool in San Jose, California, was chosen by her RSI peers for the top honor—Rickoid of the Year—at the RSI. The award recognizes academic acumen, leadership, and personal demeanor, and is named for the late Admiral H.G. Rickover, father of the nuclear Navy and a founder of CEE.
“These scholars are our future creators, inventors, scientists, and leaders of the 21st century, and their research represents a high level of academic acumen,” said Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE President. “RSI students experience graduate-level research and camaraderie with other academically talented STEM students.”
RSI is offered cost-free for students competitively chosen for excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students are selected by CEE’s committee of professional educators and RSI alumni based on high school records, personal essays, standardized test scores, teacher recommendations, research experience, potential for leadership, and honors and awards in math and science. To date, over 3,000 high school students - representing every U.S. state and 61 nations - have experienced RSI.
The 2022 RSI summer program (June 26 to Aug. 6), collaboratively sponsored with MIT, consisted of one week of theoretical classroom work, followed by four-and-a-half weeks of innovative research under the mentorship of leading scientists, engineers, and researchers in the students’ respective areas of interest. In their final week, students demonstrate their research work through written academic papers and oral presentations to their peers and a panel of judges.
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About the Center for Excellence in Education
The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was founded in 1983 by the late Admiral H.G. Rickover and Joann P. DiGennaro, President of the Center. The Center’s mission is to nurture high school and university scholars to careers of excellence and leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and to encourage collaboration between and among scientific and technological leaders in the global community. CEE sponsors the Research Science Institute (RSI), USA Biolympiad (USABO), Teacher Enrichment Program (TEP), and STEM Lyceums. CEE programs are provided cost-free to participating students and teachers. The Center works closely with educational institutions, private foundations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals. For more information, visit www.cee.org.
Media Contact:
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