3 Silver Spring Students Are Finalists In STEM Competition

SILVER SPRING, MD — Three Montgomery Blair High School students are among 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious math and science competition for 12th graders.

Grace Cai, Kevin Qian, and Daniel Schäffer were selected from a pool of nearly 2,000 applicants for their original research projects and "their overall potential as future leaders of the scientific community," the competition organizers, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Society for Science & the Public, said in a press statement.

"Finalists' projects span a diversity of STEM-related topics and this year include building new models to predict refugee migration in Burundi, identifying novel therapeutic approaches to potentially improve precision care for leukemia, and developing an automated 3D printed IoT (Internet of Things) sensor to detect arsenic in groundwater," according to the news release.

The finalists from Montgomery Blair High School completed the following original research projects:

• Grace Cai
  • An Urgency Dependent Quorum Sensing Algorithm for N-Site Selection in Autonomous Swarms
    • Project Summary: Grace studied the algorithms guiding swarming robots, each of which must perform individually, yet together, in ways that are similar to the flocking behavior and formations of birds in flight. Her algorithm improves the ability of the swarm to decide between speed and accuracy in urgent situations.
• Kevin Qian
  • Heisenberg-Scaling Measurement Protocol for Analytic Functions with Quantum Sensor Networks
    
    • Project Summary: Kevin's physics project generalized results about taking extremely accurate measurements of fields using quantum networks. Fields are everywhere in physics, including the Earth’s gravitational or electromagnetic fields.
• Daniel Schäffer
  • Evolutionary Origins of Animal ER Calcium Signaling and a Proposed Role for the Channelopathy Protein Wolframin
    • Project Summary: Daniel's research into the genetics of intracellular calcium regulation provides new insight into the evolution of this important process. His findings may someday aid the treatment of the rare genetic illness Wolfram syndrome.

In March, Cai, Qian, and Schäffer will join the other finalists in Washington, D.C. to show off their work, meet with scientists, undergo final judging, and compete for $1.8 million in awards. The competitors are also each awarded at least $25,000, with the 10 top prizes ranging from $40,000 to $250,000.

Five additional Montgomery Blair High School students were named Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholars. Allison Borton, Laura Cui, Naveen Durvasula, Steven Qu, Daniel Zhu were selected from a pool of 1,964 applicants and each won a $2,000 award. The high school will be awarded $16,000 — $2,000 for each of the eight students in the competition.

The scholars from Montgomery Blair High School completed the following projects:

• Allison Borton, Developing a Reconfigurable E-Shaped Microstrip Patch Antenna Array
• Laura Cui, Near-Threshold Doubly Heavy Tetraquark States
• Naveen Durvasula, A Bayesian Optimization Approach to Estimating Expected Match Time and Organ Quality in Kidney Exchange
• Steven Qu, Maximizing Social Leverage in Linear Threshold Influence Networks
• Daniel Zhu, On the Okounkov-Olshanski Formula for the Number of Tableaux of Skew Shapes

Montgomery Blair High School is located at 51 University Blvd. East in Silver Spring and is home to The Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program.

"We are proud of the work that Blair students do on a daily basis and appreciative of the recognition that the Regeneron Science Talent Search and the Society for Science and the Public have provided," said Peter Ostrander, the high school's magnet coordinator. "We are fortunate to live in a community that values education. We have teachers who are willing to support students wishing to conduct in depth studies. We have local universities, government agencies and research organizations that continue to open their doors to area students and provide unique opportunities not available in a traditional classroom."

Image via Shutterstock