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Sycamore Students Advance to International Science and Engineering Fair
Two Sycamore High School students have advanced to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
Sophomores Arvind Prasad and Govind Nadathur will travel to Phoenix on May 12 for the competition after finishing in the top six at the Buckeye Science and Engineering Fair (BSEF) last week.
ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Each year, approximately 1,800 high school students from more than 75 countries are awarded the opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for on average $4 million in prizes.
Prasad and Nadathur’s project, "Optimizing Hydrogels in Cosmetics: Creating Effective Self-Assembled Nanostructures Coupled with an Antioxidant-Rich and High SPF Pollution-fighting Soybean Oil Cream” aims to prevent diseases like skin cancer.
“Countless people in developing countries suffer from free radical damage to the skin caused by pollution and ultraviolet radiation from the sun, many of whom are our friends and family,” said Nadathur. “We created a cream using self-assembled nanofibers to block pollutants and UV radiation from entering our skin's pores, which prevents diseases such as skin cancer and premature aging from harming the body,”
“We tested several different values through over 200 trials and hundreds of hours of research to engineer a cream that blocks three times the pollution as existing creams, blocking over 98% of UV radiation. We hope that with this effective solution, we can help remedy this issue,” said Prasad.
Prasad and Nadathur also received the UC Environmental Engineering Award and the GE Aviation Engineering Award during the University of Cincinnati Science Fair in March.
Several other Sycamore students advanced to BSEF after receiving top honors at the UC Science Fair:
- Andrew Ripberger- $3,000 UC Presidential scholarship, GE Aviation Engineering Award, also qualified for the Genius Olympiad
- Hari Iyer & Rohan Mathur - UC School of Information Technology Scholarship
- Mohit Dighamber- $2500 scholarship to UC College of Engineering, also qualified for the Genius Olympiad
The above students, along with Claire Atkinson and Christine Zou, competed at BSEF held at Chemical Abstracts Service in Columbus. Ripberger and Zou advanced to the second of three rounds for their projects. This is the first time Sycamore High School had more than one project qualify for BSEF.
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