Nearly 1,000 students from 64 schools participated in the 2022 Gwinnett County Regional Science, Engineering + Innovation Fair, which recently took place via Zoom and a digital platform. Students of all ages produced the 450+ projects, which represented the best of student research and engineering in Gwinnett County and showcased students’ creativity and innovation.
The projects—entered in categories like Chemistry, Robotics & Intelligent Machines, Environmental Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering—were judged by professionals and scientists from all around the world who assessed them on scientific quality, accuracy, creativity, engineering precision, and experimental design.
Feedback from science professionals motivates budding researchers to take their projects to the next level. “We had a real cancer specialist who judged us,” say Lanier MS 7th graders Nyambura and Keshvee about their project on lung cancer detection. “She gave us great feedback and encouraged us to further develop our app to detect other types of cancer next!”
Jessica Holden, GCPS director of Middle and High School Science, was impressed by the quality of the projects this year. “This year’s Regional Fair involved more projects than we have had in recent years when the event was held in person,” she says. “Our students are developing projects that are increasingly focused on applying knowledge, skills, and passion to better our world. In addition, student projects are showing innovation and application on a greater level than we’ve seen previously.”
She noted that middle school students produced sophisticated projects with titles such as Application of Thermoplastics: 3D Printed Pediatric Prosthetic Foot and IdentiCan: The App That Detects Lung Cancer. High school projects rivaled the quality of industry and research institute offerings with titles ranging from The Role of Ribosomal RNA Modifications in Ribosome Biogenesis to Optimizing Machine Learning Algorithms for Multiclass Neuroimaging Segmentation.
“Science fairs like this are important because they allow students to do projects that interest them, that they can excel with, and that help them actually make the world a better place,” says Grand Prize winner Arjan, a senior at Peachtree Ridge HS.
Students with an entrepreneurial take on their projects competed in Innovation in Action, a “Shark Tank” style competition where members of the local and global STEM community selected top projects to receive seed money to help students turn their project into a product. The virtual Innovation in Action event also featured a “fan favorite” competition, where the Gwinnett community could view these projects on the Fair platform and vote for their favorite projects the day of the Fair. In addition, students had the opportunity to take part in workshops to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers and opportunities.
“The district’s commitment to science education is a commitment to preparing our students for their futures,” says Mrs. Holden. “Science education equips students with content knowledge, but also with the skills necessary for future success in college and career. Science is a verb, and we are committed to providing students experiences and opportunities to practice developing and applying skills and content learning in relevant ways. Specifically, a commitment to instructional opportunities like the science fair inspires students to blend their interests and passions with their learning in meaningful ways, which has a lasting, positive impact on both students and our community.”
The sponsors for this year’s gathering of student STEM excellence include Presenting Sponsor PCOM Georgia; Award Sponsor Broadcom Foundation; Innovation in Action Sponsor Boehringer Ingelheim; Platinum Sponsors Jackson EMC and Brace Family Foundation; Gold Sponsors Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Delta Community Credit Union, and Nordson; Silver Sponsors GCPS Foundation Fund and GCPS TV; and Bronze Sponsors Woodward & Curran, MetroPower, and Atlanta Gladiators.
In total, sponsors awarded more than $15,000 in scholarships and awards to top middle school and high school projects in categories ranging from Chemistry to Biomedical Health Science, to Environmental Engineering, to Robotics and Intelligent Machines. For a full list of winners and an opportunity to explore winning projects, please visit the Gwinnett Regional Science, Engineering + Innovation Fair digital platform.
Check out this awards ceremony video from GCPS TV that captures the excitement of the fair and celebrates the amazing work of these students.
2022 Gwinnett Science and Engineering + Innovation Fair Winners
The high school and middle school students who earned top honors at this regional competition advance to compete in the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair to be held March 31-April 2. Students earning these honors include:
Middle School
Veeraj Sharma (Crews MS)
Nyambura Sallinen, Keshvee Sekhda (Lanier MS)
Francine Delgado, Annie Golas, Nneoma Mbah (Twin Rivers MS)
Sydney Dickson, Legacy Phillips (Twin Rivers MS)
Andres Solorzano Penalver (Twin Rivers)
High School
Alexander Marshall, Riley Kashella, Ethan Ferreira (Archer HS)
Simrah Qaddus (Brookwood HS)
Kyle Kolb, Johnny Ho (Brookwood HS)
Clea Coard, Brienna Carter (Central Gwinnett HS)
Krish Saxena (Collins Hill HS)
Dua Bashir (GSMST)
LanAnh Doan, Inhyuk (Daniel) Hwang, Branden Kim (GSMST)
Haelin Lee (GSMST)
Hakimuddin Kitabwalla, Luc Nguyen (GSMST)
Carter Tussi (GSMST)
Amay Shah (GSMST)
Loan Hoang, Chameli Tissera (GSMST)
Katha Patel, Elizabeth Singh (GSMST)
Jean Yu (GSMST)
Rayna Chang, Jason Dong (GSMST)
Joey Gorman, Jonathan Gutknecht (GSMST)
Eesh Trivedi (GSMST)
Matthew Kim (GSMST)
Hrishikesh Bagalkote, John Prewitt, Samarth Shridhar (GSMST)
Parv Mahajan (GSMST)
Esmerelda Ochoa-Escobar (McClure Health Science HS)
Annabel Lee, Elisa Banks (Paul Duke STEM HS)
Chloe Au (Paul Duke STEM HS)
Brittany Cornejo Matias (Paul Duke STEM HS)
Arjan Kohli (Peachtree Ridge HS)
Arwen Dale (Peachtree Ridge HS)
Insha Charania, Ishika Narsingani (Peachtree Ridge HS)
Rajveer Singh (Peachtree Ridge HS)
Binh Nguyen (Peachtree Ridge HS)
Nashra Khan (Shiloh HS)
The top six high school projects also qualify for the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held in Atlanta May 7-13, where Gwinnett students will compete against students from 76 other countries. These students include:
Jean Yu (GSMST)
Dua Bashir (GSMST)
Joey Gorman, Jonathan Gutknecht (GSMST)
Eesh Trivedi (GSMST)
Matthew Kim (GSMST)
Arjan Kohli (Peachtree Ridge HS)