News

Newman Students Excel at the Greater New Orleans Science Fair

R. Hibbert
[FULL STORY]

Newman’s presence at the Greater New Orleans Science Fair (GNOSEF) last week was nothing less than seismic. In a pool of the brightest students from the New Orleans area, Newman earned 18 first-place finishes in various categories and landed three out of the four Grand Prizes awarded. The three Grand Prize winners will represent Newman at the International Science and Engineering Fair in May.
 
Newman seniors Christian Barahona, Srijan Duggal, Bergen Sanderford, and Shuzheng Zheng and junior Dylon Hill all won first-place prizes for their entries in the fields of Biomedical, Health, and Translational Medical Science; Embedded Systems, Robotics, and Intelligent Machines; Mathematics; and Systems Software. Senior James Xiang placed fourth in the Biomedical, Health, and Translational Medical Science category. Sophomores Emma and Robert Freeman and freshman Jack Haber also participated in the Fair. 
 
The students’ award-winning entries explored sophisticated theoretical concepts, but each has a practical application. Christian Barahona and Dylon Hill created a motion-sensing robot that can set off an alarm when it detects an intruder, making it a kind of home sentry. Bergen Sanderford (a first-place winner at last year’s fair) designed and built a device that replicates a patient’s handwriting to distinguish between regular tremors and ones associated with Parkinson’s disease, potentially useful in reducing misdiagnoses of Parkinson’s.
 
Shuzheng Zheng and Srijan Duggal’s entry was a statistical analysis of the Newman Boys Basketball team’s play. They created a program that generates color-coded reports to show each player’s best and worst shooting and passing zones. Their software and reports are already being used by the School’s coaches to match plays to each player’s strengths.  
 
In addition to the first-place finishes, Duggal, Sanderford, and Zheng won three out of four Grand Prize awards, which grants each student a $1,000 scholarship and an all-expense-paid trip to participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May, 2017. Science Chair and Biology teacher Matt Jones was also selected to accompany the students to the International Science and Engineering Fair. 
 
Contributing to the students’ success was a new Upper School course, Science Research and Design, taught by Mr. Jones. The class gives students free rein to explore their science, programming, and engineering ideas in a project-based setting. Part of the process includes participation in science competitions like GNOSEF.
 
While Jones explains that this is a great benefit to the class, he said it is not the primary reason it is offered.
 
“The class was actually created in response to strong student interest in project-based science and especially in engineering,” he said. 
 
He also praised the students’ independent work to prepare for the Fair. “I know that Srijan and Shu worked crazy hours and put in a lot of their own time into the project,” he said. “These are all engineering projects; these kids spent a lot of time working in the Makerspace, so I think we should give a lot of credit to Jenna DeBoisblanc (Newman’s Makerspace Coordinator).”
 
Several of the award winners will go on to the Louisiana State Science Fair scheduled for March 20-22 at Louisiana State University, and the Grand Prize winners will participate in the International Science Fair, where they will compete with 1,800 entrants from 75 countries around the world.
 
“The students will face some stiff competition,” Jones says, “but however they fare, they will give Newman an international presence as a strong science school.” 
 
Jones is already looking forward to next year. “I want to build the program and include entries from other science classes such as AP Biology and Creative Coding,” he said.
 
To learn more about the Greater New Orleans Science Fair, visit the GNOSEF website.
 
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