Students Awarded Top Prizes in Science Competition

Students Awarded Top Prizes in Science Competition

Several Notre Dame students participated in the 2017 Synopsis Championship science event earlier this year, bringing home the grand prize as well as three 1st Awards.  Holly Jackson ’18, brought home the Grand Prize – Best of Championship for her project "Unlocking History: An Algorithm to Virtually Unfold 3D Computed Tomography Scans of Unopened Historical Documents.” Since the competition, Holly entered her project in the California State Science Fair, where she won first place in the computational systems and analysis division. Her success has also earned her a place at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair later in May. Notre Dame students also earned additional awards:

  • Seniors Riana Karim and Sharon Truong were awarded 1st Place in the biological science and engineering category for their project, "The Effect of Different Probiotic Bacterial Strains on Ammonia (NH3) Production Levels."
  • Freshman Shruti Sridhar received a 1st Place award for her project, "Bridging Vectorcardiography and Computational Genetics: A Novel Approach to Noninvasive Early Detection of Heart Disease."
  • Maya Nayak '20 earned a 1st Place award and a Certificate of Achievement for her project, "Self-Navigating Wheelchair."
  • Kami Richardson was awarded an Honorable Mention and Certificate of Achievement for her project, "Ocean Rx: Reducing Pharmaceutical Water Pollution. Utilizing organic materials as a novel alternative to nanoparticles."
  • Sophia Barwegen received a Certificate of Achievement for her project, "The Effect of Wildfire on Seqoiadendron giganteum Growth and CO2 Flux."

The annual Synopsys Championship showcases students in Santa Clara County who will become our future scientists, technology experts, engineers, and mathematicians. This regional competition celebrates achievement by middle and high school students supported by their parents, teachers and schools.

Through this annual fair, hundreds of students are challenged to go beyond their classroom learning to do independent project-based research. They work independently or in teams to address questions in the fields of computer science, environmental ecience, medicine and health, chemistry, biology and several other categories.

The Synopsys Championship is affiliated with the Society for Science & the Public, and selects projects which go on to compete in other state and national competitions, including the prestigious Intel International Science & Engineering Fair.