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Nine Fairfax County Public Schools projects earned Grand Prize awards at the 2026 Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair, advancing their creators toward international competition.

More than 640 students presented roughly 400 projects spanning a wide range of scientific and engineering fields at the 71st annual fair. More than 250 professionals joined 40 organizations and businesses in judging the entries.

The Grand Prize winners are eligible to compete at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in May. Many other participants qualified for the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair in April.

The nine winning FCPS projects were:

  • Julia Hatcher of Madison High School: “Effect of Lead in Emulated Vape Smoke on C. elegans’ Motility and Fertility,” in Animal Sciences.
  • Lang Xiong of Langley High School: “LLMs Know When We Are Watching: A Lightweight Framework to Quantify Evaluation Awareness,” in Behavioral Sciences.
  • Sarah Park of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “Revolutionizing Targeted Therapeutics Using AI-Powered Origami Millirobots,” in Biomedical Engineering.
  • Polina Anfilofyev of Marshall High School: “Agent-Based Modeling of Alzheimer’s Combination Therapy in the Hippocampus,” in Biomedical and Health Sciences.
  • Jack Gao of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology: “TorSight: Transitioning from Tornado Detection to Prediction through Pre-Tornadic Signatures,” in Earth and Environmental Sciences.
  • Bennett Huang and Jason Pan of Langley High School: “Harnessing Methyl Jasmonate Epigenetic Defense Modulation through an Autonomous Robotic Precision Spraying System for Targeted Pest Control,” in Environmental Engineering.
  • Amaan Khan, Kavin Paturu Muralikrishnan and Aiman Ullah of Chantilly High School: “Effect of Gravitational Storage-Regeneration Applications on Power Efficiency,” in Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design.
  • Utsav Das and Benjamin Kwon of Chantilly High School: “The Effect of Pendulum Configuration on Energy Harvesting Efficiency Across Different Wave Conditions,” also in Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design.
  • Parham Yeganeh of Marshall High School: “Exploration of the Motion-Induced Quicksand Effect with Vertical Rotation,” in Physics and Astronomy.

Hundreds of students, teachers and community members contributed their time and effort to the 2026 fair. Complete competition results, including the full list of winners, are available through the FCPS Science Fair website.