STEM Students Present Impact Projects For Parsippany

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Three senior STEM Pathways students from the Parsippany-Troy Hills School District formally presented their community impact projects on March 1 to receive their distinction certification.

STEM Pathways is a co-curricular program that allows students to explore various areas of STEM at both Parsippany high schools. Students who complete this four-year program receive a special endorsement on their high school transcript as well as invaluable experiences.

Students who earn the distinction level of the endorsement are enthusiastic students who go above and beyond the program's minimum requirements. Students must take more rigorous classes, have a higher GPA, and choose between participating in an internship or completing an impact project to receive this endorsement.

Romila Deodhar, Antara Rajgopal, and Ananya Shrivastana used the engineering and design process to investigate and create a potential solution to a problem within their local and/or global communities.

Deodhar's project addresses water scarcity caused by waste and pollution. She developed a prototype of a household water filtration system that could allow for water reuse.

Her prototype could reduce a household's annual water consumption by 30 percent by reusing household water. Deodhar's future STEM plans include attending university and majoring in biophysics with a minor in music.

Rajgopal created a website that uses computer programming, machine learning, and AI technology to aid in the identification of pneumonia in patient chest x-rays. Rajgopal's future STEM plans include attending Virginia Tech and majoring in engineering with a minor in computer science. Rajgopal also intends to expand her website to assist in the identification of additional illnesses, such as tuberculosis.

Shrivastana used computer programming to create a chatbot. Her chatbot was created to assist people by allowing them to communicate about their mental health using technology.

The chatbot can provide mental health resources to the user using AI. Shrivastana's future STEM plans include attending a university and majoring in Computer Science, as well as continuing to develop this project and her passion for mental health and wellness.

"From research to prototyping to taking courses to learn more about their particular STEM areas of interest, our Parsippany students have worked hard and put in extensive time and energy over multiple years to accomplish their goals," the Parsippany-Troy Hills School District said.