Four West High Students Advance to ISEF
Four of the six students to advance from the Utah Science and Engineering Fair (USEF) to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) are from West High School. Congratulations to Anastasia Dunca, Malavika Singh, Nathaniel Loveless, and Yvonne Kim!
The USEF Senior Division competition was held earlier this month. High school students from the Salt Lake City, Canyons, Granite, Murray, North Sanpete, Park City, and Tooele School Districts, as well as the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese, presented their projects to a panel of virtual judges from the local science and engineering community. From those districts, six students were selected as ISEF Finalists and will compete with other finalists from around the world during the ISEF competition in May. Winning students’ projects are deemed the most influential and promising in the scientific and engineering endeavors, acknowledging a high-level engagement in scientific research exhibited by each of the winners.
It is with great honor we recognize the four ISEF Finalists from West High School.
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Anastasia Dunca Project Title: Predicting Molecular Phenotypes with Single Cell RNA Sequencing: An Assessment of Unsupervised Machine Learning Models Description: Cells in tumors evolve at different rates which makes cancer treatment so hard to develop. I investigated how well machine learning models performed in classifying those differences by creating an evaluation pipeline and ranked the models. The best performing models and evaluation metrics can be used in a clinical setting to learn more about the tumor microenvironment and develop a personalized cancer treatment. |
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Malavika Singh Project Title: Grasping Gestures: Analyzing the Aesthetics of Movement Through the Lens of Physics and Computer Science Description: It is undeniable that many organizations have suffered financially because of this pandemic; it is noteworthy to recognize that within this category, many small performing arts organizations and individual soloists who lack ‘big names’ and adequate funding have been highly affected, as they rely on live performances. This project aims to analyze the objective features that contribute to aesthetics so dancers can curate online performances employing tactics that may yield higher enjoyment value. |
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Nathanial Loveless Project Title: Use of Collaborative Robotics in Mass Production of Freehand Components Description: I made a hand-guided robot that can "record" and playback motions. Using this idea of recording motions, I was able to use my robot to duplicate complex drawings. If this idea were to be scaled up, it could be used to replicate any machined part. |
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Yvonne Kim Project Title: Mental Health during COVID-19: The Role of Knowledge and Information Sources Description: COVID-19 has been leading drastic changes in everyday life. Concerns are rising on the status of public mental health as the pandemic continues for an extended period of time. With all the new knowledge to understand and fight against the pandemic, knowledge level and knowledge sources would affect mental health outcomes. Thus, this project attempts to examine the US adults’ mental health status during COVID-19 and how mental health outcomes are affected by the knowledge people had of COVID-19 and their information sources, while exploring age and gender differences. |