Eight Princeton High School students and three Princeton Middle School students have been recognized for their research at the 2024 Mercer County Science and Engineering Fair (MCSEF).

Congratulations to Princeton High School students: Jieruei Chang, Shaochi Chuang, Benjamin Gitai, Amy Lin, Katie Qin, Akshaj Sama, Shloka Shriram, and Aishwarya Vedula.

Shloka Shriram, who was the first-place winner in "Chemistry and Materials" for her project "Novel Quantum Materials for Low Power Electronics," qualified to attend the  International Science & Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May. ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition.

Congratulations to Princeton Middle School students: Samhita Shriram, Elena Shen, and Fei-Fei Wang. Samhita Shriram won top prize for the junior/middle school division, which allows her to compete in a national competition next fall. 

"I would like to celebrate all of these brilliant students," said Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, Science Supervisor for Princeton Public Schools.

The MCSEF is an affiliated fair for the International Science and Engineering Fair, administered by the Society for Science. Students compete in categories such as biomedical science, computer science, engineering, chemistry and materials, just to name a few. Projects are judged by industry professionals who review project notebooks and papers, oral presentations and posters/exhibits.

Awards

Samhita Shriram 
Category: General Science (Junior) Superior Achievement
School: Princeton Middle School
Project Title: Understanding Plant Intelligence Using the Mimosa pudica 

Benjamin Gitai**
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical (1st place)
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Analysis of E. coli growth dynamics during Lambda(vir) phage infection reveals phage decay 

Aishwarya Vedula
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical  (Third place)
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Combining Image Similarity and Predictive AI Models to Decrease Subjectivity in Thyroid Nodule Diagnosis and Improve Malignancy Prediction

Jieruei Chang 
Category: Software and Embedded Systems (Third place)
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Semi-Supervised Pulmonary Auscultation Analysis with Cross Pseudo Supervision 

Akshaj Sama
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical  (Second place)
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Antibiotic Interplay of the Keto Diet, High-Protein Diet, and the Green Mediterranean Diet on Gut Microbiota 

Amy Lin* 
Category: Chemistry and Materials (Second place)
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Predicting Compound Melting Temperatures from Computationally Derived Properties Using Machine Learning 

Shaochi Chuang **
Category: Animal Science  (Second place)
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Investigating the Origins of Niche Shift in Bagheera kiplingi 

Shloka Shriram *
Category: Chemistry and Materials (1st place)
School: Princeton High School
Project Title: Novel Quantum Materials for Low Power Electronics 

Elena Shen***
Category: General Science (Junior) 
School: Princeton Middle School
Project Title: How Do Chemicals in Processed Foods Affect Our Health? 

Fei-Fei Wang***
Category: General Science (Junior)
School: Princeton Middle Schoo
Project Title: Does Social Media Negatively Affect Your Mental Health? 

Katie Qin 
Category: Biochemistry, Biology and Medical 
School: Princeton High School 
Project Title: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as Potential Anticarcinogenic Agents Against U937 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer Cells

*     Enrolled in the Research class at Princeton High School.
**   Enrolled in the Independent Study class at Princeton High School.
***  Enrolled in the Saturday eSTEAM program piloted this year to increase the level of engagement in science research at the middle school.