CONGRATULATIONS to the following winners of the 2015 Synopsys Sacramento Regional STEM Fair, and THANK YOU to ALL of our student participants for another great year!

GRAND PRIZE AWARD WINNERS OF 2015 1st Place Prem Talwai from Mira Loma High School In Math & Computer Science for his project “Model Order Reduction of Cell Signaling Pathways – An Investigation of the Invasive Mechanism of Ebola Virus” 2nd Place Maya Jayanth from Mira Loma High School In Biological Sciences for her project “Designing and Creating a Primer to Detect Multiple Viruses” 3rd Place Nathaniel Varghese from Folsom High School In Chemistry & Health Sciences for his project “Advancing Western Blotting: Improving the Sensitivity of Protein Detection with Smaller Well Engineering”

CATEGORY AWARD WINNERS OF 2015 High School Division Behavioral & Social Sciences 1st Place Abberamee Visvanathan “High Tech Learners” (Vista del Lago High School) 2nd Place Nicholas Wong “What factors influence currency bill tracking?” (John F. Kennedy High School) 3rd Place Anant Singh, Ayman Dewan, & Asef Islam “Subconscious Perception of Stimuli during Sleep” (Mira Loma High School) Honorable Mention Sara Matto, Carla Luna, & Isher Singh “The effect of distractions on reaction time” (River City High School) Raffaella Carrillo “Good Grades or Good Sleep: Can you have the best of both worlds?” (Inderkum High School) Biological Sciences 1st Place Maya Jayanth “Designing and Creating a Primer to Detect Multiple Viruses” (Mira Loma High School) 2nd Place Will Buelna

“The Effect of Pollution on Plants” (The Met Sacramento) 3rd Place Hla Elkhatib, Makayla Benjamin, & Reeta Asmai “Science of Film Photography” (Folsom High School) Honorable Mention Marisa Patel “Caffinated Rats” (River City High School) Jimmy (Cheng) Zhou “Use of CRISPRS in Regenerative Medicine” (Davis Senior High School)

Chemistry & Health Sciences 1st Place Nathaniel Varghese “Advancing Western Blotting: Improving the Sensitivity of Protein Detection with Smaller Well Engineering” (Folsom High School) 2nd Place Brian Phong “From Chickens to Mice to Cancer Patients? Boosting Immune Status with Amino Acids” (Monterey Trail High School) 3rd Place Adith Arun “Mathematical Modeling and Algorithms to Design More Efficient Cancer Therapeutics” (Mira Loma High School) Honorable Mention Henry Low

“Assessing the Mutagenicity of Common Herbicides Using a Novel Reverse Mutation Assay” (Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) Karthik Raju “Discovery of a novel polypeptide ligand targeting α6β4-expressing pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells” (Mira Loma High School)

Energy & Transportation 1st Place Sanika Mane “Determination of Most Beneficial Natural Occurring Enzyme or Chemical Type to Maximize Efficiency When Producing 2nd Generation Biofuel from Inedible Biomass” (Vista Del Lago High School) 2nd Place Nathan Bergen, Kareem Ahmad, & Eashaan Katiyar “Passive Solar Energy Generation” (Vista Del Lago High School) 3rd Place Jacquelyn Davila “A Coral Safe Sunscreen” (School of Engineering and Sciences) Honorable Mention Anthony Cordova, Trejon Croffet, Maribel Campos “Is Water from our school’s drinking fountain safe?” (John F. Kennedy High School) Peter Milam & Darius Gordon-Gregor “Rock You like a Hurricane” (School of Engineering and Sciences)

Engineering 1st Place Julie Fukunaga “HappyGarden: An Internet of Things Aquaponic System” (Tokay High) 2nd Place Henry Jorrick, Wyatt Lacroix, & Logan Matti “Project Titan” (Academy of Personalized Learning) 3rd Place Fouad Alamedine “Solving Problems with Drones” (Folsom High School) Honorable Mention Kyle Maw, Natalie De Valle, & Gabriel Corbella “Bradshaw Robotics” (Bradshaw Christian High School) Neel Lal “Testing the structural integrity of bridges using a stress analysis test in Autodesk inventor” (Granite Bay High School)

Math & Computer Sciences 1st Place Prem Talwai “Model Order Reduction of Cell Signalling Pathways – An Investigation of the Invasive Mechanism of Ebola Virus” (Mira Loma High School) 2nd Place *No Award 3rd Place

*No Award

Physical Sciences 1st Place Catherine Colella “Spacecraft, Micrometeoroids and Photons - A Model of Micrometeoroid Impingement using thin gauge metals to simulate thermal shielding” (Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) 2nd Place Siddharth Karthikeyan, Geoffrey Embry, & Victor Fu “Gravity and Buoyancy Machine” (Vista Del Lago High School) 3rd Place Echo Sit & Attie Sit “Graphene quantum dots: Determining the light intensity from natural resource of graphite powder, graphite rock, activated charcoal, and coal” (Tracy High School) Honorable Mention Shoumik Chaudhuri “Orbital Period and Distance” (Inderkum High School) Viktoriya Gracheva “How Many Pulleys” (School of Engineering and Sciences)

Middle School Division Behavioral & Social Sciences 1st Place Rhitishah Yuva Raju “Illuminate Your Life with Light and Color” (Winston Churchill Middle School) 2nd Place Abaigael Reilly & Julia Hayes “Does Screen and Text Color affect Retention?” (Our Lady of Assumption) 3rd Place Julia Heckey & Sophia Sidley “Cellphones” (Leonardo Da Vinci) 4th Place Emma Macon “Success or Bomb” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 5th Place Alison Wright “Rock on or Relax? Do Different Types of Music Influence Cognitive Performance?” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) Honorable Mention Maya Steinhart “It’s all in the Eyes” (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) Bryce Baughman “Do We Eat with Our Eyes” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School

Biological Sciences 1st Place Autumn Peak “What color of light inhibits algal growth the most?” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 2nd Place Patrick Lomperski “Who is going to be next?” (Albert Einstein Middle School) 3rd Place Sydney Walthall “Water Disinfection - Testing a Simple Solar Disinfection Approach” (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) 4th Place Chloe Moore “Hand Sanitizer: Are you getting the bang for your buck” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 5th Place Chance Clements “Which Lights Attract the Most Bugs” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) Honorable Mention Aditya Rajavelu “Does Music Really Make Plants Grow Taller?” (Winston Churchill Middle School) Sophia Peavy & Lola Jan “Home Clean Home” (Leonardo Da Vinci)

Chemistry & Health Sciences 1st Place Alex Fera “Whether the Obstruction of Pyrocystis Fusiformis’ Circadian Rhythm will affect how bright its bioluminescent flashes are” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 2nd Place Ben Powell “Tums, Tums Tums Tums Tums?” (Leonardo Da Vinci) 3rd Place Csandra Lorena & Charai Mandolph-Coleman “The Glowing Truth” (WE Mitchell Middle School) 4th Place Alexa Gray & Bridget Herbert “Are your Hands Really Clean?” (Leonardo Da Vinci) 5th Place Izabella Duchaine “Does Organic Food or Conventional Food have more Pesticides?” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) Honorable Mention Elisabeth Low “Get the Soap Out” (Sam Brannan Middle School) Nitya Kotha “Factors that Affect a Chemical Reaction” (Sutter Middle School Folsom)

Energy & Transportation 1st Place Alexandria Martinez “Tide Pools: Exploring Sea Life” (Our Lady of Assumption) 2nd Place Surabhi Hareendranath “Can Bioplastics Be a Viable Alternative to Conventional Plastic?” (Bethany Elementary) 3rd Place Noah Cardelli “Splish, Splash: Which water is cleanest?” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 4th Place Deeraj Gurram “The generation of sustainable energy using the sun and water cycle” (Folsom Middle School) 5th Place Mary O’Callaghan “How Does Acid Rain Affect Aquatic Ecosystems?” (Our Lady of Assumption) Honorable Mention Lexi Ballard & Makenna Ballard “How Does Water Pollution Effect Our Water Species?” (W.E. Mitchell Middle School) Suditi Bhatt, Akshara Legala, & Nishita Bagaria “What type of filter is best for filtering grey water to safely reuse water in a household?” (Folsom Middle School)

Engineering 1st Place Will Gaudreau “What’s Cooking?” (Leonardo Da Vinci) 2nd Place Sinchana Shivaprasad “Fingerprint Sensor” (Sutter Middle School Folsom) 3rd Place Amaan Mohammed “Project RC-PA” (Sutter Middle School Folsom) 4th Place Vance Byer “What materials block or at least weaken a WiFi signal?” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) 5th Place Zachary Follett “See the Light: Household vs. Recommended Items” (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) Honorable Mention Alex DeNuzzo “Why no WiFi?” (Leonardo Da Vinci) Colby Christierson “Potato Battery, an Alternative Source for iPhone Charging” (Sutter Middle School Folsom)

Math & Computer Sciences 1st Place Samyak Surti “Lane Merge Algorithm for Autonomous Cars” (Folsom Middle School) 2nd Place Adam Hutchings “The Riemann Hypothesis and the Distribution of Primes” (Willett Elementary) 3rd Place Albert Qin “The Spread of Drug Resistance: A Computer Simulation” (Winston Churchill Middle School) 4th Place Kenny Duong & Tommy Hoang “Want to make a video game? Here's how!” (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) 5th Place Sean Cohen “The True Randomness of Rock Paper Scissors” (Sutter Middle School Folsom) Honorable Mention *No Award

Physical Sciences 1st Place Manasi Deshpande “Cleaning Oil Spills Using Nanotechnology” (Sutter Middle School Folsom) 2nd Place Ameya Naik “The Effect of Voltage in an Electromagnet” (Winston Churchill Middle School)

3rd Place Darin Thao “A Breath of Fresh Air” (Leonardo Da Vinci) 4th Place Jonathan Varghese “A Comparitive Study of AM and FM Radio Transimissions” (Folsom Middle School) 5th Place Megan Eckels “Which Mute Mutes the Best?” (Sutter Middle School Folsom) Honorable Mention Gautam Pradeep “The Mpemba Effect: Does it Work?” (Winston Churchill Middle School) Shriya Nagulapally “When making a Solar Oven what thickness of tin foil reflects more sunlight for heat?” (Sutter Middle School Folsom)

SPECIAL AWARD WINNERS OF 2015 American Meteorological Society Parth Trivedi (Folsom High School) American Psychological Association Asef Islam, Ayman Dewan & Anant Singh (Mira Loma High School) ASM Materials Education Foundation Shriya Nimmagadda & Reshma Kodimerla (Folsom High School) Association for Women Geoscientists Teevyah Yuva Raju (Mira Loma High School) ASU Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives Kaiyue (David) Wang (Davis Senior High School) Hiba Elkhatib & Medha Aiyah (Folsom High School) California Air Resources Board Energy Kareem Ahmad, Nathan Bergen, & Eashaan Katiyar (Vista Del Lago High School) Climate Kaiyue (David) Wang (Davis Senior High School)

Air Polution Sanika Mane (Vista Del Lago High School) Honorable Mentions Christopher Cimino (Our Lady of the Assumption) Parth Trivedi (Folsom High School) Will Buelna (The Met Sacramento) Jordan Leslie, Zachary Leslie, & Mike Ashen (Our Lady of the Assumption) Jacob Artho (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) California Association of Professional Scientists (CAPS) Adith Arun (Mira Loma High School) California Biomedical Research Karthik Raju (Mira Loma High School) GENIUS Olympiad Sanika Mane (Vista Del Lago High School) Hiba Elkhatib & Medha Aiyah (Folsom High School) Intel Excellence in Computer Science Prem Talwai

(Mira Loma High School) I-SWEEEP Pending Jinan – Sacramento Sister Cities Corporation JSSCC International Award 1st Place Junlin Liu Intel Award - Yifan Luan Honorable Mention Ziyan Li & Hongrui Fan Wenhao Jiang Jiasheng Li Chenda Dan Shunyao Yu MU Alpha Theta Prem Talwai (Mira Loma High School) National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Kareem Ahmad, Nathan Bergen & Eashaan Katiyar (Vista Del Lago High School) Northern California Regional Chapter of the Society of Toxicology (NorCal SOT) High School Henry Low (Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) Middle School Makenna Ballard & Lexi Ballard (WE Mitchell Middle School)

Honorable Mentions Quincy Johnston (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) Mary O’Callaghan (Our Lady of Assumption) Izabella Duchaine (EV Cain STEM Charter Middle School) Lucy Lindgren (Leonardo Da Vinci) Jacquelyn Davila (School of Engineering and Sciences) Bala Chanadraskaran & Vivian Yang (Mira Loma High School) Sowmya Jasti (Lincoln High School) Karthik Raju (Mira Loma High School) Brian Phong (Monterey Trail High School) Adith Arun (Mira Loma High School) Office of Naval Research (US Navy/US Marine Corps) Pending

Professional Engineers in California Government Julie Fukunaga (Tokay High School) Project Lead the Way Fouad Alamedine (Folsom High School) Kian Orang & Miles Galindo (Sutter Middle School) Ramesh Innovation Prem Talwai (Mira Loma High School) RICOH Americas Corporation Julie Fukunaga (Tokay High) Younger Member Forum of the American Society of Civil Engineers (Sac YMF) High School Neel Lal (Granite Bay High School) Teevyah Yuva Raju (Mira Loma High School) Middle School Sydney Walthall (Sutter Middle School Sacramento) Lexi Ballard & Makenna Ballard (WE Mitchell Middle School)

SMUD Best in Energy Award Kaiyue (David) Wang (Davis Senior High School) Society for In Vitro Biology Jimmy (Cheng) Zhou (Davis Senior High School) Stockholm Junior Water Prize Julie Fukunaga (Tokay High) Surya Sundararajan (Mira Loma High School) Caitlin Moher, Nicolo Belmonti, & Sara Abou-Adas (Folsom High School) US Air Force Catherine Colella (Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) Ryan Walsh (Jesuit High School) Connor King & Jack Minor (Our Lady of the Assumption) US Metric Association Akshay Srinivasan (Winston Churchill Middle School) Henry Low

(Western Sierra Collegiate Academy) US Public Health Service Karthik Raju (Mira Loma High School) Yale Science & Engineering Association Julie Fukunaga (Tokay High)

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN! Take our 2015 Synopsys Sacramento STEM Fair Survey. We want to hear from YOU! Visit www.sacSTEMfair.org/2015-survey

*No additional competitors