Edina Juniors Place 4th at International Science, Engineering Fair

Two Edina High School juniors finished in fourth place at Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair, beating out 311 other entries in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category.

The annual fair—held May 12-17 in Phoenix, AZ—welcomed Abhishek Nayar and Stephen Kim, after the pair of Hornets were named finalists back in April. Their project, "Birth of a Revolution: A Global Model for Forecasting Political Instability," was based on their own research about a foreign country undergoing a socioeconomic change.

Nayar said he felt "extremely honored" after receiving the award alongside Kim, calling it "quite unexpected."

"I am truly thankful,” Nayar said. “Phoenix was a great experience I was looking forward to and couldn’t wait to meet all the great people there, and to see what the youth of the world have been coming up with. The most nerve-wracking experience was actually explaining our project to Nobel Prize winning scientists."

The Intel ISEF is the world's largest international pre-college science competition, which saw Nayar and Kim present their project to a group of judges. They were two of five finalists from Minnesota among the 1,700 students competing at this year's Intel ISEF.

The Edina duo met after school on on weekends for several months conducting research, also using a Google document to work on the research independently. Their project was evaluated on four criteria: the progress of science, effectiveness of communication, context of the project and their scope of understanding.

“I enjoyed meeting all the great students we competed with and learning more about the projects they have worked on,” Kim said. “I was excited to speak with the judges, many of whom are Nobel Prize winners, and hearing their feedback on our project.”