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Four Fairfax County Public Schools projects earned grand prizes at the 2025 Virginia Science and Engineering Fair, advancing their student creators to an international competition.
The state fair brought 62 FCPS students to the Bolick Center at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville on April 5.
The grand-prize projects were:
- Sarah Park of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “Revolutionizing Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring with AI-Powered Infrared Spectroscopy.”
- Alina Albeik of Marshall High School: “Implications of Resveratrol on Memory Retention in Dugesia tigrina.”
- Nikhil Krishna and Nived Nandakumar of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “A Comprehensive Machine Learning Paradigm for Space Debris Surveillance: An Integrated Triple Model Framework for Identification, Orbital Prediction, and Collision Risk Evaluation.”
- Anush Devkar and Ansh Malhotra of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “BrailleSense: A Modular, Low-Cost Solution for Accessible Braille Displays.”
The four projects qualified for the International Science and Engineering Festival, scheduled for May 11-16 in Columbus, Ohio.
Category awards
FCPS students also collected first-, second- and third-place honors, along with honorable mentions, across numerous scientific fields.
In Animal Sciences, Thomas Jefferson students Justin Kim and Nishka Shah won first place for “Discovery of a Novel Physiological and Molecular Response in Coral Reefs to Hurricane-Driven Hyposalinity Cycles.”
Albeik took first place in Behavioral and Social Sciences for her resveratrol and memory-retention research. Thomas Jefferson student Ryan Singh received an honorable mention for “FentaNULL: A Behavior-Based Mathematical Model to Prevent Opioid Addiction.”
Park placed first in Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering and Translational Medicine for her blood-glucose monitoring project. Chantilly High School students Matthew Chu, Thomas Duong and Ayush Katpally earned an honorable mention for “The Warburg Effect: Optimum Glucose Availability on Cancer Metabolism.”
In Cell, Molecular and Computational Biology and Biochemistry, Woodson High School student Molly Hawkins won first place for “The Effect of Propolis on Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia in a Drosophila Model of Parkinson’s Disease.” Thomas Jefferson student Aashrita Penumudi placed third with “Exploring the Structural Basis of Ribosome Stalling by Arresting Peptides.”
Oakton High School student Madison Lee earned third place in Chemistry for “Refining Sodium Hypochlorite Safety Guidelines for Cutting Boards.”
Langley High School students Bennett Huang and Jason Pan placed second in Engineering Technology and Sustainable Design for “AI-Powered Optimization of Methyl Jasmonate-Induced Defense for Precise Pest Control.” Fellow Langley student Victor Cho took third place for “HeadSmart: An IoT Solution in Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports.”
Langley students Adithya Pillai and Lang Xiong won first place in Material Science with “EcoForge: A Novel Sustainable Geopolymer Alternative to Concrete, Optimized with Machine Learning for Strength and Pollution Mitigation.” Marshall student Timothy Tu finished second for “Compression Behavior and Resistance of Strut Based Lattice Structure Designs,” while Thomas Jefferson student Rushil Kukreja placed third for “Smart Photovoltaic-Integrated Electrochromic Window for Solar Energy Harvesting and Light Pollution Mitigation.”
Marshall student Aislin Luong received second place in Microbiology for “In Vitro Interactions of Amphotericin B and Manogepix against C. neoformans.”
Krishna and Nandakumar won first place in Physics, Math and Astronomy for their machine-learning framework for tracking space debris.
Madison High School student Stella Hong took first place in Plant Science for “Plant Waste to Nanoparticles: A Green Solution to Combat Fungi Fusarium.”
Devkar and Malhotra earned first place in Robotics, Software and Embedded Systems for their low-cost Braille display project.
Special recognition
Park received the Mark Licata Award for Biotechnology and an honorable mention for the Leidos Award for Excellence in Applied Science.
Krishna and Nandakumar received one-year US Metric memberships. Albeik was awarded a one-year honorary membership from the Association for Women Geoscientists and a one-year complimentary student membership from the American Psychological Association.