Local students headed to state science fair

Katherine Selai – Mustangs Ahead

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – Lakewood Ranch High School (LRHS) sophomores Sophia Mitchell and Selma Onus have progressed to the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair after winning first place in two categories of the Manatee Regional Science and Engineering Fair, in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category and in the Biomedical and Health Science category.

Mitchell did a project on training Artificial Intelligence (AI) to use data to diagnose injury.Mitchell explains her project by stating, “For my project I attempted to see if I was capable of teaching an AI to diagnose raw gait data (walking data) by training it with not only the raw data but the meta data as well, which acts as a sort of answer key for the data.”

Mitchell came up with this idea through her passion for physical therapy. She completed the project completely on her own with a simple idea of teaching AI to be more efficient and accessible to more people.

Mitchell explained her perspective by stating, “This idea came relatively fast to me once I had narrowed down to what I wanted my project to accomplish and what i wanted to use the hardest part was figuring out what kinds of physical therapy issues i wanted to touch on eventually landing on gait injuries.”

Mitchell intends to continue in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine (STEM) field for her future career. She intends to go on to a medical degree in physical therapy.

Stay updated on more LRHS news by following us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or follow the Mustangs Ahead Podcast on Spotify

“After high school I want to pursue a degree in either exercise science or kinesiology so that I can go on to get a DPT where I would hope to become a physical therapist who works with patients after operations helping them get back to their sport/life”, said Mitchell.

Onus had a different approach to the science fair with her project on plastic pollution affecting long-term health. She used this idea to create a model to demonstrate how plastic pollution affects the blood-brain barrier specifically.

Onus explained her idea in more detail by stating, “Microplastics are constantly being found in the human body in crucial tissues and organs, such as the heart, liver, placenta, kidneys, and even the brain. For my project, I specifically studied nano plastics bypassing the blood-brain barrier, which is the brain’s natural protective layer.”

Onus pursued the science fair to further explore and pursue her passion in less-studied subjects to bring a new perspective to old research. She hopes to make an impact on the future of biomedical research.

Onus stated, “I want to contribute meaningful data to the field of biomedical research, and I hope to expand the scope of my knowledge in ways that connect to real-world impact.”

Onus intends to pursue a career in STEM. She hopes to pursue biomedical engineering.

“My interests began in aerospace engineering, shifted to computer science, and have now led me to hope to pursue biomedical engineering in my future studies,” stated Onus.