Imagine listening to an expert discuss biomedical science, engineering, microbiology and mathematics. Now imagine that expert is a high school student. That was the case this past week, when juniors Maren Overgaard, Evan Morris, Huxley Westemeier and senior Deling Chen presented their original research at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair was held in Columbus, Ohio from May 12-16. It is the world’s largest and most prestigious international STEM research competition for high school students, with over 2,000 finalists selected from 60 countries, regions and territories.
Though ISEF was a weeklong event, the competition where all the projects would be judged was a single day spanning seven hours. “You wake up in the morning, four hours in the morning, and you’re just in the project hall, and you can hear everybody. It’s rows and rows of projects, and everybody has their own booth. And then you get an hour break, and then come back for another three hours to get more judges. So that was definitely intimidating, but overall, it’s just like so much fun to meet new people,” Overgaard said.
What struck Morris and Overgaard was the sheer amount of diversity and talent in one room. “I was next to this one girl from Saudi Arabia, and then across from me was this girl from Brazil. And next to me, I forgot where she was from, some place in the US,” Morris said, “[…] It didn’t really feel like a competition. It felt like a networking event.”
There were many opportunities for the students to meet new people throughout the week. A favorite activity of Overgaard was the student mixer held after the judging was over. “They have what they call a student mixer, and it’s affectionately known as ISEF prom, because people get kind of dressed up you go in, there’s food, but there’s all these activities. […] So hopefully that pressure is gone and you can just enjoy the experience, because leading up to judging, it gets a little bit tense, and people are really focused on their projects and their presentations,” Overgaard said.
Morris and Chen competed in the cellular and molecular biology category. Morris’ won second place in the category with his project Shining a Light on Synapses: A Scalable, Cost-Effective, and Noninvasive Optogenetic Platform for Probing Synaptic Plasticity in Neurodegenerative Disease Research. “In simple terms. I created a system to look at how different patterns of neuronal activation impact the brain’s ability to strengthen its connections, or even weaken the connections that it has, which we call synaptic plasticity,” Morris said.
Overgaard competed in the biomedical and health sciences category, with her project on The Impact of Hypohydration on Concussion Severity. “I knew I wanted to do something sports related, because if I’m going to spend a whole year researching and developing a project, I want to be excited to learn more. […] I always talk about how hydration influences performance and how that can change the way you race and the way you practice and how you respond to different workouts. […] The more I got into it, the more I was just excited to learn more,” Overgaard said.
Overall, getting this far with their research required a lot of hard work and effort, and Overgaard and Morris got a lot out of the experience. “And there’s just so many people from different places, but kind of being united about one common goal and interest, I think, really allows us to connect pretty deeply with each other, despite the competition,” Morris said.
“I think the biggest thing [for me] was spending so much time looking into something that I was interested and inspired by, and then trying to convey what I learned to other people, that was a huge skill that I had to practice over and over at all of these different fairs that I don’t think I would have learned otherwise. And I’m not perfect. But I think I’m a lot more confident in myself and my understanding of the world,” Overgaard said.
Regeneron ISEF gives the world’s brightest young student scientists a platform on a global scale to present their exceptional STEM research. This year, nearly $8 million in prizes and scholarships were awarded to ISEF finalists and winners. But more significant than just the awards was the connections, confidence and knowledge attained by all the finalists, including Morris, Overgaard, Chen and Westemeier. Because reaching this far is a huge achievement in of itself.
Updated 5/24 to add Podbean recording
