16 MA Students Named Winners In National Science Talent Search

The Regeneron Science Talent Search has named 300 high school seniors as scholars in the
nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition. The 300 scholars, including 16 from Massachusetts, represent 38 states, the District of Columbia and two countries.

Each of the 300 scholars and their respective schools receive a $2,000 award.

The scholars were selected from a pool of nearly 2,000 applications sent in by 601 high schools in 48 states, two U.S. territories and eligible students living in seven other countries, according to a press release.

“The scholars were selected based on their exceptional research skills, commitment to academics, innovative thinking and promise as scientists,” the release said. “This year, research projects cover topics from bioengineering to environmental science to physics.”

The Massachusetts scholars are, along with their towns, schools and titles of their winning projects:

ACTON

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School

Bhat, Sanjit, 17: Towards Efficient Methods for Training Robust Deep Neural Networks

Kasar, Atharva, 18: Analyzing the Effect of a Percussive Backbeat on Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Delta Binaural Beats

ANDOVER

Phillips Academy

Chang, Justin, 18: Rheb, a Ras-like Small GTPase, Interacts with WFS1 Protein (Wolframin): Implications of Rheb Signaling Pathways in Wolfram Syndrome 1

Hou, Kaiying, 18: The Hardness of Finding Hamiltonian Cycle in Grids Graphs of Semi-Regular Tessellations

Xu, Guanpeng 16: NExplore: Visualizing Recurring Structures in Dynamic Networks with Automated Pattern Extraction

BELMONT

Belmont Hill School

Daley, Nicholas, 17: Diploid Chromatin Conformation Capture and Developmental Changes of
3D Genome Structure

BOSTON

The Winsor School

Su, Angela, 17: Highly-Efficient Capturing and Highly-Sensitive Whole-Slide Counting of Circulating Tumor Cells Using an Integrated Capillary Microchannel Device

BROOKLINE

Brookline High School

Chow, Yuen Ting, 17: Optimizing the Identification of Translated Unannotated Open Reading Frames

Xu, Frank, 17: A Unique Metalloproteinase Complex: ADAM10-MMP14

CONCORD

Middlesex School

Dong, Zhengyang, 18: netDAE: Novel Feature Learning Method of Gene Expression Data Based on a NetworkEnhanced Denoising Autoencoder

LEXINGTON

Lexington High School

Chen, Robert, 18: Aleator: Random Beacon via Scalable Threshold Signatures

Yoo, Seo-Hyun, 18: Down-Regulation of Multi-Drug Resistance Proteins by microRNAs Enhances
Chemotherapeutic Efficacy

SHARON

Sharon High School

Ravikumar, Akshaya, 17: Investigation of the Genetics of Smoking Behavior in the United Kingdom Biobank

SHEFFIELD

Berkshire School

Lebenthal, Avalon, 18: Propionibacterium acnes biofilm: The Effect of Peptide 1018 on Bacterial Production

Tian, Daniel, 18: Robust Adversarial Perturbation on Deep Proposal-Based Models

WORCESTER

Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science

Srivastava, Shashvat, 17: AnonStake: An Anonymous Proof-of-Stake Cryptocurrency via Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Algorand

Of the 300 national scholars, 40 will be named finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search on Jan. 23. The finalists will travel to Washington D.C. March 7-13 to compete for more than $1.8 million in awards provided by Regeneron.

Regeneron became a sponsor of the competition in 2017. The competition is founded and produced by Society for Science & the Public.

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