Iona Prep Students Bring Home Regeneron Science Fair Division Awards

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Two talented Iona Prep students earned division awards at the 2024 Regeneron Westchester Science & Engineering Fair, but the true value of their work might be how it changes the future.

Iona Preparatory School senior Aydan Gerber and junior Mateo Del Rio Lanse earned division awards at the 2024 Regeneron Westchester Science & Engineering Fair. The competition was held on March 16, at Somers High School with over 700 high school students from Westchester, Putnam and Sullivan Counties participating.

The awards were presented on Thursday.

Both Iona Prep Science Research stuidents placed second in their divisions — Gerber in Behavioral Science and Del Rio Lanse in Computer Science.

Gerber developed an algorithm using Python to conduct keyword-frequency analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to identify significant topics of discussion under the #sustainability hashtag on X (Twitter). His results were published by Cambridge University Press in February.

While focusing on improving machine-learning rates through more efficient convolutional neural network (CNN) training, Del Rio Lanse developed three CNNs that can screen for tumors in brain scans.

The Regeneron Westchester Science & Engineering Fair (WESEF) encourages students to participate in hands-on science by providing a forum for showcasing the outstanding research of high school students in Westchester, Putnam and Sullivan Counties of New York State. The top 20 projects will advance to the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair.