Eight Cabrillo Middle School students have received national recognition at the annual Thermo Fischer Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. The students comprised three teams, each of which submitted a scientific solution to a real world problem.
While the projects were submitted during the 2023-24 school year, the announcement of the top 300 was only released recently. Among the finalists were Advika Pathak and Jiya Tejura, now eighth graders at Cabrillo. Their project worked to make harvesting solar energy more efficient by using double-sided solar panels.
“Our goal was to make solar panel systems more efficient and affordable for people, accessible to people anywhere. [It] promotes the use of clean energy instead of fossil fuels,” said Tejura.
For Pathak, it was about seeing a problem firsthand and creating a solution.
“Last year, summer, we went to our village in India, and we saw it was really hot there, and I saw that it could easily have used solar energy to power the house because there are a lot of electric outages … [they] were using oils for the generator,” said Pathak.
This was the first science fair for both students, so they learned as they went.
“Our project was very different from what we have right now. We went through a lot of iterations,” said Pathak. “It was a lot of work. We just gained our confidence … our teacher [Jessica Schroeder] was really supportive, and then we had resources to go with our project. We made iterations along the way, thinking, how could we make this better? Since it wasn’t working that well originally.”
Tejura also credited their STEM teacher, Schroeder, for their success.
“Miss Schroeder was very supportive. We had a lot of rough bumps and stuff and she kind of pushed us through it,” said Tejura. “Even when we made it to regionals or state, she really helped us through the process.”
This year, they’re on different teams working on different projects, but they’re still cheering for one another. They say their years in time in the 49ers STEM Leadership Institute (SLI), have taught them a lot.
“We love the program. They really help us,” said Tejura. “They are really supportive teachers. We have resources, and they help us find materials for our project.”
“We have a lot of opportunities to compete in different types of fairs or competitions,” said Pathak. “It helps us understand what we are interested in; what we’re not interested in. Just helps you figure out what your career path might be in the future.”
Lavernie Chen, Ruhi Kelkar and Adwita Ram, ninth graders at Santa Clara High School this year, also made the top 300 finalists. The students created a concussion-detecting headband that creates an alert based on the force of impact.
The third team that made the top 300 was made up of Vansh Bahety and Noah Song, also ninth graders at Santa Clara High this year. They created a project called StreetSafe: Reducing Fatalities on Crosswalks with Wearable ML-Incorporated Tech.
“We couldn’t be prouder of our 49ers SLI students for being recognized for their STEM projects on a national level,” said Justin Prettyman, Executive Director of the 49ers Foundation. “Our students have the freedom to explore topics that interest them, from solar energy to concussion detection technology. Of course, we are also very thankful for our talented educators who give their time and energy to educating and empowering this next generation of leaders.”
SLI is a joint partnership between the 49ers Foundation, Chevron, Silicon Valley Education Foundation and the Santa Clara Unified School District.