San Ramon Brothers Both Win First Place At Contra Costa Science Fair

SAN RAMON, CA — Two San Ramon brothers won first prize in their respective categories of the Contra Costa County Science Fair. Both Gatik Trivedi, a senior at Dougherty Valley High School, and his brother Jainil Trivedi, a seventh grader at Gale Ranch Middle School, were selected to present their research at the California State Science Fair, where they both won first and second prizes, respectively. Jainil was also the only seventh grader from Contra Costa County selected to compete at the national Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.

Gatik’s project was titled “NeuroGuardian: A Telemedical Neurodegenerative Monitoring System with Predictive Analytics for Late-Stage Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Patients.” He developed a machine learning algorithm to help doctors keep a close eye on ALS patients, especially in late stages. The machine will check on the status of patients and help patients stay at home, rather than going to the hospital for tests.

He came up with the idea when a distant family friend with ALS talked about how difficult it was to complete daily tasks, and get the attention of doctors. “At that moment, I knew I had to take action,” Gatik said. “I felt compelled to contribute in any way I could to find a better approach for monitoring and predicting ALS progression. I am now on a mission to develop a predictive model that harnesses the telemedicine device I've built with the guidance of my mentor.”

In addition to winning first place at both county and state fairs, Gatik has been accepted to UC Berkeley’s MET (Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology) undergraduate program, where he will study biomedical engineering and business. He was one of 50 out of 7000 applicants to be accepted, and one of just two in the Bay Area.

Jainil’s project was entitled “Smart AI Enabled IT Systems to Detect and Predict Trends of Toxic Gasses for Industrial Communities.” He performed measurements on different toxic gasses, then downloaded the data using AI desktop software, classified the data points and then ran supervised learning regression models to build predictive capabilities for future trend analysis to send alerts to housing communities in industrial zones. His AI model was able to classify data points in the right toxic gas categories and predict future Air Quality Index Values with 93 percent accuracy.

“Winning first place at state and county fairs with my project on developing a predictive model and telemedicine device for ALS would fill me with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride,” he wrote. “It would feel like my efforts to improve the lives of ALS patients through advanced technology have been truly appreciated and encouraged.”

Jainil said he came up with the idea while driving through an industrial part of Martinez. “Many times I noticed that the air quality around that area was very poor,” he said. “Upon asking my parents and looking up on the internet, I realized that there are a lot of hazardous gases that get released as an outcome of the factory there which impacts the health of the city's residents very deeply. To address these problems, I developed my project which is about examining the health effects of the following common toxic gasses: Sulphur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen oxides.”

“Being a 7th grader and competing for the first time in the junior's division made me feel nervous but then when the awards were announced and I won not only first place at state but also was nominated for nationals, it made me feel really proud of the hard work I had done. To have my hard work, research, and innovative thinking recognized by a panel of expert judges would be incredibly rewarding and validating,” he said.

Students from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District performed exceptionally well in the Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair. More than 100 students from high school and middle school won recognition, and 11 out of the 18 projects selected to advance to the state competition were submitted by SRVUSD students, according to the district.

See here for the full list of winners.