Countywide Science and Engineering Fair Winners

Frederick County Public Schools announces winners in the 39th annual Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair, one of only six Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)-affiliated events in Maryland. Held online Saturday, March 28 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fair featured 84 projects entered by more than 100 students representing 23 middle and high schools.

The overall grand prize went to Frederick High School students Alexander Plisov and Christopher Pondoc for their project, “A Pilot Benchmarking Study of Deep Neural Network Performance on Low Magnification Pathology ROIs.” The runner up was Urbana High School student Charlotte Hively for her project, “SAGE: Space Astrofarm Greenhouse Enclosure.” Alexander, Christopher and Charlotte would have represented Frederick County next month at the ISEF in Anaheim, California. 

At the middle school level, Urbana student Mona Kurian earned the grand prize for her entry, “Ice Cream Chemistry - Studying the Freezing Point Depression of Water.” The runner up was Urbana Middle student Dinesh Ganesan for “Walking Stick Assist.” The following students were named Middle School Broadcom MASTERS, eligible to compete nationally in the Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering Rising Stars event: Dinesh Ganesan, Mona Kurian, Monica Nader, Avery Radwinsky, Atley Shafer and Anushka Sharma.

The following earned awards as noted in first through third place and honorable mention in the specified categories at middle and high school levels:

Animal Sciences—(middle) tied for 1st place:  team of Joshua Midla, Nicole Robles and Mia Saavedra (Windsor Knolls), Atley Shafer (Brunswick); 2nd place: Arno Carrera (Friends Meeting School); 3rd place: Elon Corgan (Brunswick)

Behavioral and Social Sciences—(high) honorable mention: Ana Morlier (Catoctin), Diya Jha (Governor Thomas Johnson); (middle) 1st place: Avery Radwinsky (Urbana); 2nd place: Ishan Anand (Urbana); tied for 3rd place: George Pullen, Jr. (Urbana), Christine Ryan (Friends Meeting School); 

Biochemistry—(middle) 3rd place: Cleo Cochran (home schooled); honorable mention: Abdi Hassan (Urbana)

Biomedical and Health Sciences—(high) 2nd place: Amelia Harman (Walkersville) partnered with Ethan Nguyenkhoa (Career & Technology Center); 3rd place: Siddharth Buddha (Urbana); (middle) 1st place: Sarah Shah (Urbana); 2nd place: Priyanka Gupta (Ballenger Creek); 3rd place: Joel Prabakaran (Urbana); honorable mention: Aiden Bellanca (Windsor Knolls), Shreshtha Joardes (Windsor Knolls) 

Biomedical Engineering—(high) 1st place: Seraphim Kozlov (Urbana); 2nd place: Manasi Tanikella and partner Mihir Tanikella (Urbana)

Cellular and Molecular Biology—(high) tied for 2nd place: Karly Liebendorfer (Middletown), Divya Swaminathan (Urbana); tied for 3rd place: Nitya Jani (Governor Thomas Johnson), Iman Mansoor (Urbana); honorable mention: Saket Thakrar (Urbana)

Chemistry—(middle) 1st place Mona Kurian (Urbana); 2nd place Alexander Forster (Windsor Knolls)

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics—(high) 1st place: Alexander Plisov and partner Christopher Pondoc (Frederick); 2nd place: Jeshuwin Prabakaran (Urbana); (middle) 1st place: Anushka Sharma (Ballenger Creek); 2nd place: Elliot Anderson (Monocacy Valley Montessori)

Earth and Environmental Sciences—(high) 2nd place: Taylor Sims (Tuscarora); 3rd place: Reese Hyden (Tuscarora); (middle) 2nd place: Aarushi Kariveda (Urbana); 3rd place: Joanna Genemans (Thurmont); honorable mention: John Jensen (Urbana), Abhishek Muthukkumar and partner Gautham Ramachandran (Windsor Knolls), Idhaya Chezhian (Urbana)

Embedded Systems—(high) 1st place: Charles Giglio and partner Jorgen Miller (Urbana); (middle) 2nd place: Aarman Jamiluddin (Crestwood); 3rd place: team of Diego Aizveram, Dubem Akunyili and Samuel Teague (Windsor Knolls)

Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design—(middle) 1st place: Alejandra Sierra (Monocacy); tied for 2nd place: Eshan Bhatia (Oakdale), Yidi Zhao (Urbana); tied for 3rd place: Shayon Biswas (Urbana), Simon Kenney (Urbana)

Engineering Mechanics—(high) tied for 1st place: Charlotte Hively (Urbana), Sanjana Subramanian (Urbana); (middle) 1st place: Dinesh Ganesan (Urbana); 2nd place: Priyanka Subramanian (Urbana); 3rd place: Emmanuel Johnson (Oakdale)

Environmental Engineering—(high) 1st place: Nicolas Farrell and partner Bishoy Ibrahim (Frederick); 2nd place: Abhinav Inavolu (Urbana); (middle) 3rd place: Mariana Sepulveda (Urbana); honorable mention: Lucy Ellis and partner Natalia Johnson (Windsor Knolls)

Materials Science—(middle) honorable mention: Zoe Croker (Windsor Knolls)

Microbiology—(high) 1st place: Rachel Washart (Middletown); (middle) 3rd place: Riya Khirbat (Urbana)

Physics and Astronomy—(middle) 1st place: Nicolas Brown (Urbana); 2nd place: Arushi Patel (Urbana); 3rd place: Thomas Sova (Middletown); honorable mention: Dorian Lukaszewicz partnered with John Harold Magrames (New Market), Neha Nair (Middletown), Aditi Senthilkumar (Urbana), team of Audrey Cowles, Zack Davis and Sarah Dueto (Windsor Knolls), Blaine Trivett (Walkersville), Alex Sogonov (Urbana)

Plant Sciences—(middle) 1st place: Monica Nader (Urbana); 2nd place: Rachael Thyparambil (Urbana); 3rd place: Sharada Narayanan (Windsor Knolls); honorable mention: Lindsey Frear (Windsor Knolls) 

Robotics and Intelligent Machines—(high) 2nd place: Amogh Kashyap (Urbana); 3rd place: Jessica An and partner Annaëlle Le Guellec (Urbana); (middle) 3rd place: Teddy Lackner (Urbana); honorable mention: Joel Abu (West Frederick)

Systems Software—(high) honorable mention: Sanjanaa Viswanathan (Urbana); (middle) 2nd place: Ved Roychowdhury (Urbana)