West High Student Wins Science Symposium

Marianne Liu, an 11th grader at West High School, placed first overall in the Intermountain Science and Humanities Symposium. As a reward, she will receive a scholarship of $2,000 and advance to the U.S. National competition in Albuquerque, NM.

Marianne was one of 11 finalist students selected after an initial round of competitions. The 11 finalists presented their work in a competitive symposium-style format. She competed against other students who studied a range of topics, from the effect of oil spills on marine organisms to creating simulations of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Marianne's research focused on using machine learning to predict materials' properties, which can greatly accelerate the materials' discovery and innovation process. She created six different computer models for this end and then ranked the best one. Her model was validated by her own experiments conducted at the University of Utah.