SPA Students win Awards at 2025 Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, Move on to State, National, and International Competitions

SPA student-scientists have once again earned multiple national, state, and local honors at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair (TCRSF) for their original research in science, computer science, and engineering. Twenty-one students competed in this year's TCRSF.

For the eighth year in a row, SPA students competing at TCRSF were named Finalists in the Regeneron ISEF competition, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Maren Overgaard '26 and Huxley Westemeier '26 will present their projects entitled The Impact of Hypohydration on Concussion Severity and Integrity: Generalized Artificial Image Classification with Noise Doman Localization during ISEF's finalist competition in early May. Additionally, Shefali Meagher '26 was named an ISEF alternate.

In addition, 11 SPA student projects will move on to the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair and 4 were named alternates. A total of 19 sponsored awards for excellence in specific research or disciplinary areas were also awarded to SPA students’ research or projects. See below for a full list of the students’ projects and awards.

Of the 21 TCRSF competitors, fourteen were students in SPA's Advanced Science Research (ASR) course taught by Karissa Baker, seven were students in Dr. Kate Lockwood and Henri Parenteau’s Advanced Technology Projects (ATP) course, and one was a Middle School student. Both the ASR and ATP courses are designed for students who want to conduct independent original research in an area of their interest and choosing. “Our students brought projects that they have been working on all year, and in a few cases, for two years," Baker says, "they have gone through the process of researching the primary literature on their topic, designing their methods, carrying out their experimental trials or engineering design, returning to the drawing board to tweak their methods of design, and communicating their results to an external audience. The Junior Science and Humanities North Central Symposium in Sioux Falls and Twin Cities Regional Science Fair in St. Paul are both great opportunities for students to interact with judges and peers from other schools about their projects.”

Student projects

• De-An Chen ‘28: Post Intervention Sustainability of Time Restricted Eating vs Caloric Restriction

• Deling Chen ‘26: An Artificial Intelligence - Electrocardiogram Model for Prediction of Dementia – the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study

• Avital Coleman ‘27 and Sophie Nguyen ‘26: Solar Drip: Water Efficient Sun-Powered Irrigation

• Andrew Evens ‘25: Improving Polyvinyl Alcohol as a Flame Retardant on Corrugated Cardboard Using Resveratrol and Tannic Acid

• Jack Gao ‘28: Human Factors and Technology Enables Safe and Autonomous Driving

• Kate Gao '30: Status and Potential of Tesla Self-Driving Capability

• Amanda Hsu ‘26: The effect of capsaicin on the heart rate of Daphnia magna under induced photoperiod stress

• Max Johnson ‘25: Ergometer Generator Retrofit for Sustainable Energy

• Lam Le ‘26: Urban Ants and Heat Waves: A Test on T. immigrans

• Mariam Malik ‘25: The Effects of Polypropylene and Polyethylene on Dugesia tigrina Cell Regeneration

• Shefali Meagher ‘26: A Novel Analysis of Cosmetic Methylparaben in Artificial Amniotic Fluid

• Evan Morris ‘26: A Novel Approach to Enhancing Treatments for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Frequency-Dependent Optogenetics in C. elegans

• Maren Overgaard ‘26: The Impact of Hypohydration on Concussion Severity

• Nora Seifert ‘26: Digital Synesthesia

• Charlotte Talbot ‘26: The effect of 3-hydroxybutanone (acetoin) found in vapes/e-cigarettes on calcium mass

• Allan Wang ‘26: Understanding the effect of Calcium Chloride road salt on tires

• James Welsh ‘26 and Otto Rudolf ‘26: The RMCD

• Huxley Westemeier ‘26: Integrity: Generalized Artificial Image Classification with Noise Doman Localization

• Inga Wing ‘25: Impact of PFAs Degradation on Fluorinated and Non-fluorinated Ski Waxes

• Annie Zhang ‘25: Sustainably Balancing Textile Consumerism Needs While Reducing Microplastic Shedding

• Arlo Zirps ‘25: Chemically Recycling CFRPs in Nitric Acid in Mild Conditions at Atmospheric Pressure

Competition Qualifications

Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF): Maren Overgaard '26: Finalist and Huxley Westemeier '26: Finalist; Shefali Meagher: Second Alternate

Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair qualification: Deling Chen; Jack Gao; Amanda Hsu; Lam Le; Mariam Malik; Shefali Meagher; Evan Morris; Maren Overgaard; Charlotte Talbot; Inga Wing; and Huxley Westemeier. Alternates: Avital Coleman and Sophie Nguyen (paired project); Andrew Evens; and Allan Wang

Sponsored Awards

• Northrup Grumman Award: Huxley Westemeier
• 3M Young Inventor Award: Inga Wing
• 3M Display and Electronics Product Platform Award: Jack Gao
• 3M Personal Safety Division Award: Avital Coleman and Sophie Nguyen (paired project)
• Integrated Science Award: Allan Wing
• American Chemical Society Honorable Mention: Shefali Meagher
• American Chemical Society Award: Inga Wing
• US Ari Force Award: Andrew Evens and Inga Wing
• Office of Naval Research Award: Jack Gao
• American Psychological Association Award: Amanda Hsu
• Association of Women Geoscientists Award: Mariam Malik
• Genius Olympiad: Avital Coleman and Sophie Nguyen (paired project)
• Regeneron Biomedical Science Award: Shefali Meagher
• Ricoh Sustainable Development Award: Max Johnson 
• Society for In Vitro Biology Award: Shefali Meagher
• USAID US Agency for International Development Award: Andrew Evens
• Yale Science and Engineering Award: Huxley Westemeier
• Stockholm Junior Water Prize: Avital Coleman and Sophie Nguyen (paired project)