April 3, 2023

The Texas Science and Engineering Fair (TXSEF) is an annual state science competition for students in grades six through twelve. To advance to the TXSEF competition, students must have placed at their district and regional fairs. This year’s competition was held in College Station, Texas on March 24–25, 2023. Students were judged on their document submissions (a 2 minute overview video, digital board, and presentation of physical boards) as well as their in-person interviews.

More than 1,200 students participated in this year's event, competing in 21 categories in the life and physical sciences across Junior and Senior divisions. Twenty-one Plano ISD students earned awards in the competition, including the Best in the State of Texas award in Life Science - Senior Division. Thirteen Plano ISD Senior Division winners placed first, second, or third in their category and have earned the opportunity to attend the Governor’s Science and Technology Champions Academy. Three Plano ISD Junior Division students who placed first in their category have been nominated to apply to the Thermo Fisher Science Junior Innovators Challenge. 

Top Senior Division projects advance to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Four Plano ISD students qualified to advance to ISEF - they will join the six Plano ISD ISEF qualifiers from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair to compete at ISEF in Dallas, Texas from May 14-19, 2023.

BEST IN THE STATE OF TEXAS

Senior Division, Life Science

• Zehra Jaffery, Plano West Senior High School, Attenuation of Methylglyoxal Cytotoxicity with Fisetin Rescue in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
  
  Zehra Jaffery, Plano West Senior High School
  

SPECIAL AWARDS

• Katherine Lee, Plano West Senior High School, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Finding an Accessible, Environmentally Friendly Solution to Water Purification: Testing the Effectiveness of Aloidendron barberae and Bambusa dolichomerithalla as Natural Coagulants - Texas Master Naturalist Award

CATEGORY AWARDS

Junior Division

First Place*

• Arnuv Modh, Rice Middle School, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, An analysis of mRNA backbone in an aqueous solution data: are there base mutations that make sequences less susceptible to degradation?
• Ana Spiride, Rice Middle School, Embedded Systems, Palm Reading: A Novel Computer Vision Approach to Translating Sign Language
• Hiruni Wansapura, Wilson Middle School, Environmental Engineering, Bio-Breeze: A Biodegradable Air Filter Using Snake Plant Cellulose Fibers
  
  * All first place junior division winners are nominated to apply for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge  
  

Second Place

• Aika Saadiq, Wilson Middle School, Materials Science, I Can't Hear: Soundwave Cancellation by Soundproofing Materials in Rooms

Third Place

• Nidhi Ajmera, Otto Middle School, Environmental Engineering, The Light and Shape of Things: The Effect of Roof Shape on Inside Temperature of Houses

• Shruti Paul, Schimelpfenig Middle School, Embedded Systems, Automated Plant Watering System

Junior Division participants

Senior Division

First Place*

• Dhroov Bharatia, Vines High School, Robotics and Intelligent Machines, VisiAide: A Multifaceted Self-Learning AI Assistant for the Visually Impaired Using A Novel Context-Based Approach

• Shriya Bhat, Plano East Senior High School, Microbiology, Combating Pseudomonas Resistance: Cloning of ampC Gene Encoding for Beta-lactamase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Computational Mutagenesis of TEM-1 Beta-Lactamase to Identify Potential Allosteric Binding Sites

• Prisha Bhat, Plano East Senior High School, Plant Sciences, Agro-Rhizoremediation: Rhizoremediation with Agro-transformed Oryza sativa to facilitate Arsenic degradation in-situ

• Zehra Jaffery, Plano West Senior High School, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Attenuation of Methylglyoxal Cytotoxicity with Fisetin Rescue in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

• Jason Xu, Plano West Senior High School, Biomedical and Health Sciences, Proliferous Metabolics
  
  *All first place finishers have qualified for the International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF), either at the regional or state level.

Second Place*

• Arya Gurumukhi, Plano East Senior High School, Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design, A Novel Fe Doped Metal-Oxide Electrode Material for High Energy Densities Within Intercalated Pseudo Supercapacitors

• Shreya Halbe, Plano West Senior High School, Materials Science, Comprehensive Analysis of Microplastic Contamination of Water: The Effects of Zinc Oxide Treated Novel Bio Composites Comprising of Abelmoschus esculentus and Aloe vera

• Madhalasa Iyer, Plano Senior High School, Environmental Engineering, Maximal Triglyceride Production by Co-cultivation of Isochrysis galbana and Bacillus megaterium for Engineering Third-Generation Biofuels

• Alanna Polyak, Plano West Senior High School, Translation Medical Science, Investigating the Potentiality of an Alternative, Realistic Cure of Encephalomyelitis disseminata (Multiple Sclerosis) Using the Neoblasts From Dugesia tigrina (Planaria) on Lumbricus terrestris (Earthworms)

• Raghav Ramki, Plano East Senior High School, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Decoding Cancer II: Biomarker Based Predictive Modeling of Population Level Signaling for Cancer Treatment Optimization

Third Place*

• Team: Zaynab Abbas and Yizhen Zhang, Jasper High School, Chemistry, A Study on the Effects of Pleurotus djamor Enzymes in the Breakdown of FOG Hydrocarbons for Water Remediation

• Shashank Gangaram, Plano East Senior High School, Biomedical and Health Sciences, Exploring the relationship between tau and cortical thinning in the development of Alzheimer’s Disease

• Albert Jiang, Plano West Senior High School, Mathematics, Finding a Lower Bound for k-Unbounded Hamiltonian Cycles*All first through third place Senior Division winners qualify for the Texas Governor's Science & Technology Academy

Senior Division participants

International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) Qualifiers

• Otto Beall, Plano East Senior High, A Membrane-Free Organic Redox Flow Battery, qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair

• Dhroov Bharatia, Vines High School, VisiAide: A Multifaceted Self-Learning AI Assistant for the Visually Impaired Using A Novel Context-Based Approach, qualified from the Texas Science and Engineering Fair

• Prisha Bhat, Plano East Senior High, Agro-Rhizoremediation: Rhizoremediation with Agro-transformed Oryza sativa to facilitate Arsenic degradation in-situ, qualified from the Texas Science and Engineering Fair

• Shriya Bhat, Plano East Senior High, Combating Pseudomonas Resistance: Cloning of ampC Gene Encoding for Beta-lactamase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Computational Mutagenesis of TEM-1 Beta-Lactamase to Identify Potential Allosteric Binding Sites, qualified from the Texas Science and Engineering Fair

• Zehra Jaffery, Plano West Senior High, Attenuation of Methylglyoxal Cytotoxicity with Fisetin Rescue in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair

• Shivani Nathan, Jasper High School, Pleurotus ostreatus as a Biological Method of Cellulose Extraction for Hydrogel Synthesis, qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair

• Alanna Polyak, Plano West Senior High, Investigating the Potentiality of an Alternative, Realistic Cure of Encephalomyelitis disseminata (Multiple Sclerosis) Using the Neoblasts From Dugesia tigrina (Planaria) on Lumbricus terrestris (Earthworms), qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair

• Andy Qin, Plano West Senior High, Building a modern AI system to detect the presence of current and future DDoS botnet attacks, qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair

• Jason Xu, Plano West Senior High, Proliferous Metabolics, qualified from the Texas Science and Engineering Fair

• Meryl Zheng, Clark High School, The Easiest Hard Problem: A Heuristic Solution to the Two-Way Number Partitioning Problem Using Probabilistic Algorithms, qualified from the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair