The Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair, founded in 1985, started out with a little more than 100 projects and has grown considerably to include participants from across the Commonwealth.
This year we expect 250 projects to participate in VSSEF from students who presented at their local and regional fairs. The regional fairs contributing to this year's VSSEF are:
Blue Ridge Highlands Regional Science Fair
Central Virginia Regional Science Fair
Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair
Regeneron ISEF 2023, the world's largest pre-college STEM competition, will take place from May 13-19 in Dallas, Texas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Regeneron ISEF 2023 will be a fully in-person event complimented by a virtual site where finalists will share their projects online. All judging and events will be in-person.
Follow us on social media at @ODUsci for updates and other information. Also, check out the Monarch Science Observer for more sceintific research happening at ODU.
Brain Tumor Segmentation and Classification Based on Deep Learning, Attention Mechanisms, and Energy Based Uncertainty Predictions
VSSEF-ENEV-099
Frank Chang, Jason Yoo, Stephen Tsai
ARM: Streamlining Recyclable Waste Identification with Highly Scalable Deep Learning Algorithms
VSSEF-SOFT-102
Shinyoung Jeon
MoodBox: Vocal Screening for Depression and Gamified Relief
VSSEF-BEHA-151
Ellie Kim, Fayza Mehrin, Madison Nally
Feasting Fruit Flies: Evaluating the Effect of selected Ayurvedic Plant Extracts on the Mood, Memory, and Fertility of Drosophila melanogaster
VSSEF Category Awards
Animal, Behavioral, and Social Sciences
First
VSSEF-BEHA-151
Ellie Kim, Fayza Mehrin, Madison Nally
Feasting Fruit Flies: Evaluating the Effect of selected Ayurvedic Plant Extracts on the Mood, Memory, and Fertility of Drosophila melanogaster
Second
VSSEF-BEHA-070
Elizaveta Plis
Effect of Larval Crowding of the Zophobas morio Beetle on Consumption of Polystyrene Foam
Third
VSSEF-BEHA-161
Jenny Vu
The Memory Retention of Planaria (Dugesia dorotocephala) after the Removal and Regeneration of the Cerebral Ganglia and Various Percentages of Body Tissue
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-BEHA-142
Agnes Cho, Bethel Abebe, Vaishnavi Burra
The Effects of Herbal Medicine on Memory Recall of Planaria When Conditioned Against Negative Phototaxis
Plant Sciences
First
VSSEF-PLNT-116
Aayush Shivashankar
The Effect of Chlorine (ppm) on the Lead Phytoremediation Rate in Lemna minor
Second
VSSEF-PLNT-178
Alyssa Vargas
Design and Application of Sediment Pollution Collector to Fertilize Plants
Third
VSSEF-PLNT-036
Hannah Mizuba
The Effect of Winter Rye Grass Extract on Haustoria Formation by Dodder on Tomato
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-PLNT-033
Marcus Gafford
The Effects of Gamma Radiation on the Growth and Development Rates of Glycine max
Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology
First
VSSEF-BCHM-047
Roger Zhu
Nanoscopic Delineation of Rodent and Human Neuromodulatory Transmission
Second
VSSEF-BCHM-004
Olivia Bartrum
Analysis of Anti-Inflammatory Compounds in Drug Absorption and Calculated Transdermal Permeability Utilizing the Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeability Assay (PAMPA)
Third
VSSEF-BCHM-085
Samvrit Rao
In-vitro Aided Computational Approach to Identify Preclinical Drug Targets to Treat Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-BCHM-158
Reagan Labert
Comparison and Analysis of the Compositions of Commercial Kombucha Products
Microbiology
First
VSSEF-MCRO-071
Ashrita Gandhari
LetoHealth: A Second Opinion for Embryologists to Aid the Evaluation of the Health of Fertilized Embryos
Second
VSSEF-MCRO-068
Emma Baldwin
The Effects of Aminoglycoside & Beta-Lactam Antibiotics on S. marcescens
Third
VSSEF-MCRO-013
Jason Chen
Got Milk? Comparing the Acid Production of Bifidobacterium infantis when Grown in Different Milks
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-MCRO-108
Ayse Yener
The Effect of Hydrochloric Acid Molarity on Bacterial Viability Using a Hemocytometer
Computational Biology and Translational Medicine
First
VSSEF-TMED-172
Ebru Ayyorgun
Novel 3D Linked-Data Exploration for Analysis of High-Dimensional Datasets
Second
VSSEF-TMED-117
Omkar Kovvali, Sritan Motati
OtoScan: A Novel, Inexpensive System for Comprehensive Diagnosis of Middle Ear Infections with an Intelligent Mobile Otoscope
Third
VSSEF-TMED-074
Kyan Yang, Sara Becker
Predicting Monkeypox Via Deep Learning-Driven Primary Morphology Analysis
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-TMED-107
Akshath Karthikeyan
Using Receptor Tyrosine Kinase and Resulting Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Cascade to Relocate Interleukin-7 Receptor to Provide Therapeutic Treatment for MS
Health Sciences and Biomedical Engineering
First
VSSEF-BMED-141
Yashvir Sabharwal
NephroNet: A Novel Program for Identifying Renal Cell Carcinoma and Generating Synthetic Training Images with Convolutional Neural Networks and Diffusion Models
Second
VSSEF-BMED-045
Aditya Biswas
Tracking Essential Tremors
Third
VSSEF-BMED-181
Janie Qing
The Novel Configuration of a Photoplethysmography Sensor to Produce Heart Rate Biofeedback
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-BMED-132
Aryan Mhaskar
Development of Novel Stimulator To Reduce Electromagnetic Interference During Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Chemistry
First
VSSEF-CHEM-095
Benjamin Hawkins
The Impact of Insect Repellent on the Effectiveness of Sunscreen
Second
VSSEF-CHEM-029
Amelia Uhl
The Effect of Price on Microplastic Content in Water Bottles
Third
VSSEF-CHEM-100
Abigail Skinner
The Effect of Increasing Temperature on the Illuminance of a Luminol Reaction
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-CHEM-008
Anna Freeman
The Effect of the Amount of Gelling Agent on the Density of Both Vegan and Non-Vegan Marshmallows
Physics, Math, and Astronomy
First
VSSEF-PHYS-159
Rockwell Li
Breaking the Limits of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Using Super Resolution
Second
VSSEF-PHYS-090
Kent Fruchtman
The Effect of Reduced Friction on Vehicle Speed
Third
VSSEF-PHYS-106
Sophia Cloutier
Lighting the Way: Emulating Fiber Optics with Acrylic Rods
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-PHYS-111
Ronit Kapur
Gravity-Darkened Atmospheric Models of Exoplanets: Insights from KELT-9b
Earth and Environmental Sciences
First
VSSEF-EAEV-024
Franziska Borneff
Measuring the Effects of Climate Change on Arctic Rivers
Second
VSSEF-EAEV-077
Sean Lee, Kevin Lee
An Innovative Alternative to Plastic Straws with Bacterial Cellulose
Third
VSSEF-EAEV-072
Sanchali Banerjee
A Novel Framework Using Long-Short Term Memory Networks to Predict Land Cover Evolution for Forestation Sustainability and Climate Change Mitigation
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-EAEV-017
Bridget Baron
Measuring Ventilation via Carbon Dioxide
Environmental Engineering
First
VSSEF-ENEV-099
Frank Chang, Jason Yoo, Stephen Tsai
ARM: Streamlining Recyclable Waste Identification with Highly Scalable Deep Learning Algorithms
Second
VSSEF-ENEV-109
Anirudh Mantha
Tracking Microplastics via Remote Sensing and Mathematical Analysis
Third
VSSEF-ENEV-018
Grace Hettinger, Arianna Espiritu
Sun Seeker; Mechanical Sunflower
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-ENEV-174
Aarav Patel, Michael Day
Developing a Novel Amine-Infused Hydrogel for Efficient Organic-Based Carbon Capture: Investigating the Effectiveness of Aqueous Amino Acid Solutions Synthesized with Chitosan-Alginate Hydrogel Structures
Material Science and Sustainable Energy Design
First
VSSEF-EGSD-087
Sofia Pakhomkina, Ellie Ngo
The Effect of Temperature and Cooling Methods on Solar Cell Efficiency
Second
VSSEF-EGSD-082
Seoyoung Jun
Solar Tree: Bioinspired Solar Panel Design and Performance Review
Third
VSSEF-EGSD-098
David Alfert
The Effect of Sucrose on the Biodegradability of Gelatin-Based Bioplastic
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-EGSD-054
Heidi Thompson, Evelyn Anderson
Removing Pollutants from Water Using Various Sodium Alginate Beads
Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics
First
VSSEF-ETSD-088
Aryaman Khanna, Mihika Dusad
HypeFL: A Novel Blockchain-Based Architecture for a Fully-Connected Autonomous Vehicle System using Federated Learning and Cooperative Perception
Second
VSSEF-ETSD-114
Joseph Tso, Andrew Kim
Centralized Urban Microhubs: A Solution for Efficient Food Delivery?
Third
VSSEF-ETSD-078
William Zhang
A Polarization-Based Approach to Reduce Glare of Vehicles at Night
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-ETSD-030
Erika Milhorn
The Effect of Vertical Oscillation and Cycles per Minute on the Effective Detection of a 24 GHz Device
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
First
VSSEF-ROBO-135
Zachary Schwehr
Brain Tumor Segmentation and Classification Based on Deep Learning, Attention Mechanisms, and Energy Based Uncertainty Predictions
Second
VSSEF-ROBO-021
Hannah Qi
Diagnosis of Melanoma Skin Cancer Using Convolutional Neural Networks
Third
VSSEF-ROBO-169
Nikil Shyamsunder
Automated Offset Detection/Classification in Global Positioning System Time Series Using Sliding-Window based Machine and Deep Learning Methods
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-ROBO-123
Kira McIntosh, Mayssa Amara
Autonomous Solar Panel De-Duster
Software and Embedded Systems
First
VSSEF-SOFT-102
Shinyoung Jeon
MoodBox: Vocal Screening for Depression and Gamified Relief
Second
VSSEF-SOFT-154
Joshua Bryant
Designing and Prototyping and LIDAR Based Haptic Navigation Vest for the Visually Impaired and Special Forces
Third
VSSEF-SOFT-081
Sathvik Redrouthu, Steven Lu, Dhruv Anurag
A Photonic Hardware Accelerator for Ultrafast Tensor Algebra Computations and Neural Network Inference
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-SOFT-049
Alexis Alms
Turning Thoughts Into Words: Building an Inexpensive Communication Device
VSSEF Special Awards
American Psychological Association
VSSEF-BEHA-079
Sara Elanchezhian
AI in School Safety: Deep Learning Graphological Features to Recognize Psychosocial Attributes Indicative of Violent Behavior in Students and to Perform Threat Level Assessment for School Shootings using Feed Forward Neural Networks
Association for Women Geoscientists
VSSEF-EAEV-072
Sanchali Banerjee
A Novel Framework Using Long-Short Term Memory Networks to Predict Land Cover Evolution for Forestation Sustainability and Climate Change Mitigation
Leidos 2023 Young Virginia STEM Research Award
VSSEF-TMED-051
Vidya Ambati
Haloperidol Inhibits Inflammasome Activation and Reduces the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Leidos Award for Excellence in Applied Science
First
VSSEF-ROBO-043
Carson Ray, Kane Reczek
The Application of Robotic Arm Swarm Behaviors for Autonomous Construction Tasks
Second
VSSEF-SOFT-154
Joshua Bryant
Designing and Prototyping and LIDAR Based Haptic Navigation Vest for the Visually Impaired and Special Forces
Third
VSSEF-BMED-045
Aditya Biswas
Tracking Essential Tremors
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-BCHM-046
Sean Fu
Biochemical Sensor Abnormality As A Promising Epilepsy Biomarker
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-ETSD-088
Aryaman Khanna, Mihika Dusad
HypeFL: A Novel Blockchain-Based Architecture for a Fully-Connected Autonomous Vehicle System using Federated Learning and Cooperative Perception
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-BMED-059
Sophia Schumaecker
MRI Flow Mapping of Tissue Engineered Lymph Node Stroma: Applications in Response to Interstitial Fluid Flow and Chemotherapy
Leidos Award for Excellence in Computational Science
First
VSSEF-ROBO-135
Zachary Schwehr
Brain Tumor Segmentation and Classification Based on Deep Learning, Attention Mechanisms, and Energy Based Uncertainty Predictions
Second
VSSEF-BMED-141
Yashvir Sabharwal
NephroNet: A Novel Program for Identifying Renal Cell Carcinoma and Generating Synthetic Training Images with Convolutional Neural Networks and Diffusion Models
Third
VSSEF-BMED-022
Griffin Yakob
Determining the Applicability of Peripheral Blood Biomarkers for Lung Adenocarcinoma Diagnosis
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-PHYS-101
David Cao, Khoi Dinh
Leveraging Quantum Computing to Simulate Ising Models: A Novel Approach to Mitigating Neurosurgery Risk
Honorable Mention
VSSEF-ROBO-169
Nikil Shyamsunder
Automated Offset Detection/Classification in Global Positioning System Time Series Using Sliding-Window based Machine and Deep Learning Methods
Mark Licata Award for Biotechnology
First
VSSEF-BMED-097
Archishma Marrapu
Project Pill Tracker: The Bottle Integrated Automatic Pill Tracking and Dispensing System
Second
VSSEF-MCRO-071
Ashrita Gandhari
LetoHealth: A Second Opinion for Embryologists to Aid the Evaluation of the Health of Fertilized Embryos
Third
VSSEF-BCHM-085
Samvrit Rao
In-vitro Aided Computational Approach to Identify Preclinical Drug Targets to Treat Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)
NASA Earth System Science Award
VSSEF-EAEV-024
Franziska Borneff
Measuring the Effects of Climate Change on Arctic Rivers
National Geographic Award
VSSEF-EAEV-072
Sanchali Banerjee
A Novel Framework Using Long-Short Term Memory Networks to Predict Land Cover Evolution for Forestation Sustainability and Climate Change Mitigation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
VSSEF-EAEV-120
Megan Ellis
The Effect of Soil Density on Runoff and Erosion
Regeneron Biomedical Science Award
VSSEF-BMED-023
Anna Mohanty
The Effect of Axon Diameter on Heart Rate Variability
Ricoh Sustainable Development Award
VSSEF-EGSD-082
Seoyoung Jun
Solar Tree: Bioinspired Solar Panel Design and Performance Review
Society for In Vitro Biology
VSSEF-BCHM-004
Olivia Bartrum
Analysis of Anti-Inflammatory Compounds in Drug Absorption and Calculated Transdermal Permeability Utilizing the Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeability Assay (PAMPA)
U.S. Metric Association
VSSEF-PHYS-026
Delaney Lewis
The Effect of Infill Percentages on the Structural Integrity to Mass of Material Ratio
U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize
First
VSSEF-ENEV-109
Anirudh Mantha
Tracking Microplastics via Remote Sensing and Mathematical Analysis
Second
VSSEF-ENEV-166
Zahra Rizvi
Flowing into the Future: Addressing Urbanization's Impact on Water Quality
Third
VSSEF-EAEV-140
Sidak Singh
An Overlooked Aspect of Wastewater Treatment: Analyzing the Capacity of Various Sanitary Wipes to Dissolve in Distilled Water
Virginia Section of the American Water Works Association
First
VSSEF-ENEV-044
Seth Richards, Aidan Mayhue
The Bioremediation of Perfluorooctanoic Acid by Pseudomonas putida
Second
VSSEF-EGSD-054
Evelyn Anderson, Heidi Thompson
Removing Pollutants from Water Using Various Sodium Alginate Beads
Third
VSSEF-CHEM-029
Amelia Uhl
The Effect of Price on Microplastic Content in Water Bottles
Fair Director
Gabriel Franke Assistant to the Dean College of Sciences 143 Oceanography & Physics Bldg. Norfolk, VA 23529 mfranke@odu.edu 757-683-5057
Assistant Fair Director
Justin Mason Planetarium Director Physics Department 128 Oceanography & Physics Bldg. Norfolk, VA 23529 jrmason@odu.edu 757-683-3474
Chair of the Scientific Review Committee
Lesley Greene Associate Professor & Associate Dean Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Chemistry Building, 4501 Elkhorn Ave Norfolk, VA 23529 lgreene@odu.edu 757-683-6596
Judge Coordinator
Emily Hardy Lecturer Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Chemistry Building, 4501 Elkhorn Ave Norfolk, VA 23529 ehardy@odu.edu 757-683-3996
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