2024 Mercer Science and Engineering Fair Awards
These are the award winners for the 2024 Mercer Science and Engineering Fair. You can download the PDF file containing this list.
We would like to congratulate all those students that participated and thank our judges for their work evaluating all the projects and interviewing the students.
We had originally planned a video award ceremony like last year but scheduling issues prevented us from providing that this year.
Awards will be mailed and should be received by April 19th. Please contact me if you are on this list and have not received anything by that time. - Bill Wong
Award: Grand Prize
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: 3D digital holographic microscopic water quality detection system
Students: Tingwen Chen
Award: First runner up
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Chemistry and Materials
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Novel Quantum Materials for Low Power Electronics
Students: Shloka Shriram
Award: Second runner up
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: A Novel Interpretative Deep Neural Network with Grad-CAM’s Heatmap for The Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Students: Annabelle Yao
Award: Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge
Division: Junior Division 2024
Organization: Society for Science
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Unified School Middle School (formally John Witherspoon)
Project Title: Understanding Plant Intelligence Using the Mimosa pudica
Students: Samhita Shriram
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: Measuring Which Product Works Best to Keep Skin Moist
Students: Adhya Abi
Award: First Place
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Behavioral and Social Science
School: Hopewell Valley Central High
Project Title: The Influence of Social Settings on E-Cigarette and Alcohol Use
Students: Emily Fang
Category: Chemistry and Materials
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Novel Quantum Materials for Low Power Electronics
Students: Shloka Shriram
Category: General Engineering
School: The Peddie School
Project Title: Multi-Terrain Adaptable Post Disaster Rescue navigation Vehicle
Students: Haolin Yu
Category: Plant Science
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: Deciphering the Airborne Sounds of Plants Under Drought Stress
Students: David Hsu
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: Multi-Unit Reconfigurable Robot
Students: Zirui Wang
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: 3D digital holographic microscopic water quality detection system
Students: Tingwen Chen
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: The Peddie School
Project Title: EcoCast: Multi-Task Global Temperature Forecasting via Autoregressive Transformers
Students: Yang Han
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: West Windsor-Plainsboro High South
Project Title: Assessing Mutations In Beta-Globin Gene For Improved Protein Folding
Students: Olivia Swarup
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Analysis of E. coli growth dynamics during Lambda(vir) phage infection reveals phage decay
Students: Benjamin Gitai
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: A Novel Interpretative Deep Neural Network with Grad-CAM’s Heatmap for The Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Students: Annabelle Yao
Award: Superior Achievement (1)
Division: Junior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Unified School Middle School (formally John Witherspoon)
Project Title: Understanding Plant Intelligence Using the Mimosa pudica
Students: Samhita Shriram
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: Measuring Which Product Works Best to Keep Skin Moist
Students: Adhya Abi
Award: Second Place
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Behavioral and Social Science
School: = Home School =
Project Title: OxySleep: An LSTM-based Machine Learning Approach to Sleep Apnea Detection using Blood Oxygen Data
Students: Krish Shah
Category: Chemistry and Materials
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Predicting Compound Melting Temperatures from Computationally Derived Properties Using Machine Learning
Students: Amy Lin
Category: Animal Science
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Investigating the Origins of Niche Shift in Bagheera kiplingi
Students: Shaochi Chuang
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: West Windsor-Plainsboro High South
Project Title: How and Why Large Language Models Rewrite Text: A Study in Media Bias Mitigation
Students: Neel Iyer
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: Princeton Day School
Project Title: Assessing ESG Compliance and Impact: A Zero-Shot Learning Approach to Analyzing Fortune 500 Companies' Sustainability Reports
Students: Armaan Agrawal
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Antibiotic Interplay of the Keto Diet, High-Protein Diet, and the Green Mediterranean Diet on Gut Microbiota
Students: Akshaj Sama
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: The Peddie School
Students: Aiden Kim
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Revolutionizing Asthma Treatment: A Breakthrough in LABA Design Enhances Both Selectivity and Efficacy
Students: Sophia Liu
Award: Outstanding Achievement (2)
Division: Junior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Chapin School
Project Title: Seconds to Safety
Students: Arjun Afiniwala
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Chapin School
Project Title: The Effect of home-made disinfectant solutions on strawberries freshness.
Students: Ana Sofia Gutierrez-Gonzalez
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Day School
Project Title: Identifying the Severity of Knee Osteoarthritis Utilizing Machine Learning
Students: Aayush Balaji
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: How Dogs (Both AI generated and real) can help train AI models to spot deepfakes.
Students: Anamitra Abi
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: How does the level of solutes (salt) in water affect plant growth over twenty five days?
Students: Beatrice Clarke
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Chapin School
Project Title: The Effect of Model Rocket Tube Length on Stability
Students: Forrest Wang
Award: Third Place
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Behavioral and Social Science
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: The Diversity in College Admission: a study of Asian American applicants in Harvard Judicial Case
Students: Jin Sun
Category: Chemistry and Materials
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: High Throughput Virtual Screening of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Hydrogen Storage
Students: Zhifei Liu
Category: Energy
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Stretchable, Breathable Wearable Batteries using a Holey Design
Students: Christine Wu
Category: General Engineering
School: Princeton Day School
Project Title: Automated Farmland Contamination Monitoring Using Internet of Things
Students: Lizbeth He
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Semi-Supervised Pulmonary Auscultation Analysis with Cross Pseudo Supervision
Students: Jieruei Chang
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: West Windsor-Plainsboro High North
Project Title: The Effect of EV Battery Metals on River Microbial Systems
Students: Zeeshan Shariff
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton High School
Students: Aishwarya Vedula
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Navigating the Tumor Microenvironment: Identifying Novel Biomarkers in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Using Single-Cell Transcriptomics
Students: ZiXuan Xin
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Pioneering Anti-Inflammatory Therapy: The Path to Precision Therapy with C3aR Peptide Libraries
Students: Megan Hsu
Award: Honorable Mention
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: Plant Science
School: Robbinsville High School
Project Title: The Effects of Classical Music on the Growth of Vernalized Radish Plants
Students: Aishwarya Gadicherla
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: The Peddie School
Project Title: MetaDesigner: Advancing Artistic Typography through AI-Driven, User-Centric, and Multilingual WordArt Synthesis
Students: Kaibo Wang
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: = Home School =
Project Title: Machine Learning for HIV-ART Optimization
Students: Mariam El-Hadik
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Eco-friendly Remediation of PFOA Contamination using BTs-ZVI (Banana Peel, Tapioca - Zero Valent Iron)
Students: Emily Lee
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as Potential Anticarcinogenic Agents Against U937 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Cells
Students: Katie Qin
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Robbinsville High School
Project Title: The Efficacy of Various Food Preservation Methods Against the Growth of Escherichia Coli in a Controlled Environment
Students: Akhilesh Chauhan
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Students: Junrui Jonathan Hai
Award: Honorable Mention (4)
Division: Junior Division 2024
Organization: Mercer Science and Engineering Club
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Day School
Project Title: Classification of waste materials into biodegradable and nonbiodegradable using machine learning
Students: Aarav Balaji
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Chapin School
Project Title: The Effect of Distance on the Light Intensity from Different Sources
Students: Claire Liang
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Unified School Middle School (formally John Witherspoon)
Project Title: Does Social Media Negatively Affect Your Mental Health?
Students: Fei-Fei Wang
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Unified School Middle School (formally John Witherspoon)
Project Title: How Do Chemicals in Processed Foods Affect Our Health?
Students: Elena Shen
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Chapin School
Project Title: How Do Iron Pyrite Cubes Rust in Different Liquids?
Students: Xingzhi Li
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: The Effect Of Temperature On The Bounce Of A Tennis Ball
Students: Vishnu G
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: Comparison of Heat Storage in Water Bottle Brands
Students: Jia M
Award: Best Use of Photography
Division: Junior Division 2024
Organization: New Jersey Camera & One Hour Photo
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Montessori School
Project Title: How Dogs (Both AI generated and real) can help train AI models to spot deepfakes.
Students: Anamitra Abi
Award: Biomedical Science Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: A Novel Interpretative Deep Neural Network with Grad-CAM’s Heatmap for The Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Students: Annabelle Yao
Award: Air Force Research Laboratory Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: US Air Force
Category: Software and Embedded Systems
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: Multi-Unit Reconfigurable Robot
Students: Zirui Wang
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: 3D digital holographic microscopic water quality detection system
Students: Tingwen Chen
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Analysis of E. coli growth dynamics during Lambda(vir) phage infection reveals phage decay
Students: Benjamin Gitai
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: A Novel Interpretative Deep Neural Network with Grad-CAM’s Heatmap for The Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease
Students: Annabelle Yao
Award: APA Outstanding Research
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: American Psychological Association
Category: Behavioral and Social Science
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: The Diversity in College Admission: a study of Asian American applicants in Harvard Judicial Case
Students: Jin Sun
Award: Association for Women Geoscientists Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Association for Women Geoscientists
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Eco-friendly Remediation of PFOA Contamination using BTs-ZVI (Banana Peel, Tapioca - Zero Valent Iron)
Students: Emily Lee
Award: Environmental Protection Agency Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Environmental Protection Agency
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: West Windsor-Plainsboro High North
Project Title: The Effect of EV Battery Metals on River Microbial Systems
Students: Zeeshan Shariff
Award: NJ Water Environment Association (NJWEA)
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: NJ Water Environment Association
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: 3D digital holographic microscopic water quality detection system
Students: Tingwen Chen
Award: NASA Earth System Science Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: NASA
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: The Peddie School
Project Title: EcoCast: Multi-Task Global Temperature Forecasting via Autoregressive Transformers
Students: Yang Han
Award: NOAA's "Taking the Pulse of the Planet" Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: NOAA
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: The Peddie School
Project Title: EcoCast: Multi-Task Global Temperature Forecasting via Autoregressive Transformers
Students: Yang Han
Award: RICOH Sustainable Development Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: RICOH
Category: Environmental Science and Engineering
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: 3D digital holographic microscopic water quality detection system
Students: Tingwen Chen
Award: USAID Science Champion Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: U.S. Agency for International Development
Category: Chemistry and Materials
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science
Project Title: Predicting Crystal System of Cathode Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Machine Learning Models
Students: Tyler Fu
Award: YSEA Science Fair Award
Division: Senior Division 2024
Organization: Yale Science & Engineering Association
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical
School: Lawrenceville School
Project Title: Revolutionizing Asthma Treatment: A Breakthrough in LABA Design Enhances Both Selectivity and Efficacy
Students: Sophia Liu