Brilliant Amity Science Research Students Share Their Ideas

Amity High School Principal Charles Britton expressed his pride in the work teacher Deborah Day and her students did this year, resulting in a remarkable achievements for the Amity Science Research Program.

In his weekly news letter, Britton wrote, “The highlight for the week was the performance of Amity Science Research Program (SRP) students in recent science fairs, consortiums, and competitions. Ten SRP students were finalists at the CT Science and Engineering Fair. An Amity team placed 4th overall at this event. Ten SRP students competed at the CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Amity teams placed 1st and 3rd overall at this event”

He continued, “Three SRP students attended the CT Mircroelectronics and Optoelectronics Consortium at Yale University. An Amity team was recognized for best poster award at this event. Two Amity seniors were also recognized with awards in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition.”

Concluding, Britton said,  “These recognitions are culminating accomplishments resulting from a year of intensive science research. Congratulations are extended to all the Amity Science Research Program students and their teacher, Ms. Day, for a remarkable year.”

According to the CT Science Fair website,  the following Amity High School students received honors for their work.

• Junior Samantha Austin won third place for her project “New species of Xantusiidae from the Middle Miocene of New Mexico”

• Senior Satish Bhat also received third place for “Using cAu-TNF Nanoparticle For Targeted Cancer Therapy: A Simultation”

• Sophomore Dana Chung won third place for her project, “Determining the Effects of Cyberknife Radiosurgery for Tirigeminal Neuralgia”

• Senior Evan Fox placed second for his project on “The Correlation Between Environmental Chitinase Activities and Asthma Severity”

• Sophomores Daniel Giebisch and Noah Gallant took first place for their project on “Windbelts: The Future of Wind Power; The effect of Magnet Thickness, Coil Configuration and Film Elasticity on Electrical Output of a Windbelt”
The project also earned Daniel and Noah the third place trophy in the Dominion Millstone Power Station Physical Sciences Awards
And second place, $300 cash, a trophy and a trip to comport in the Genius Olympiad in Oswego, NY in the Energize CT/eesmarts Alternative Renewable Energy Awards.

• Sophomore Arvene Golbazi received first place for “The Effect of Lead (Pb) particles on the Electrical Resensitivity of Carbon Nanotubes”
In addition Arvene is a finalist in the Dominion Millstone Power Station Physical Sciences Awards and received a CSF Medallion and Acrylic award.
Also $100 honorable mention in the IEEE Connecticut Section.

• Senior Jordan Henck placed third with his project “Prediction of cancer tissue-origin based on molecular sequencing evidence using a machine learning-based classifier algorithm”
Also he received a Medallion and Acrylic Award as a Senior High Finalist in the Xerox Computer Science Awards
And for the United Technologies Corporation Awards he received $500 in UTC Common Stock, a plaque, backpack and annual report.

• Senior Tanay Lathia placed second with the project “The Effect of MEK Inhibition on HT29 and CAKl 1 Cancer Cells”
She also received a CSF Medallion and Acrylic Award from the Alexion Biotechnology Awards as a finalist in the Biotechnology Senior High category.

• Senior Brian Liang won second place for his project “Investigating the role of p53 in ovarian cancer cell response to the chemotherapeutic drugs cisplatin and vellparib.

• Sophomore Victoria Liu also placed second for her project on “A Meta-analysis of Subthalamic versus Pallidal Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease.

• First place went to Senior Zhangao Liu for the project “Regulation of Borrella Burgdorferi-Induced Inflammation by TAM Receptors.
Liu also was named a finalist in the Pfizer Life Sciences Awards and received a CSF Medallion and Acrylic Award.
In addition, Liu was a finalist in the Alexion Biotechnology Awards and received a CSF Medallion and Acrylic Award.

• Senior Thomas Meehan placed second for his project “How Robotic Facial features Affect the Ability to Attend to and Recall Movement Patterns”

• Senior Peter Satonick won third place for his project, “Electroencephalography to Analyze and control the human hand.”

He also received a certificate and $50 gift card to Amazon given by CSEF via Mu Alpha Theta.

• Senior Helen Zhao placed second for her project on “Characterizing the boundaries of the Lipid Bilayer surrounding Imtramembrane Protease GipG”
In addition Helen won the Cell Analysis and Modeling Award from the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling at UCHC. This came with $100 cash and a tour of the Cell and Genome Sciences Institute at UCONN Health Center.

• Junior Jennifer Ahu placed second for her project on “Mental rotation of three-dimensional faces.”
And rounding out the Amity winners list is:

• Senior Shiyu Zhuang, placing first with the project “Ca2+ Sensitive Alginate-Dendrimer FRET System for Detection of MI”
Zhuang was named a finalist in the Dominion Millstone Power Station Physical Sciences Awards, taking home a Medallion and Acrylic Award.
Also earning fourth place in the Alexion Biotechnology Awards, taking home $200 and a trophy
And the Cell Analysis and Modeling Award from the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling at UCHC. This came with $50 cash and a tour of the Cell and Genome Sciences Institute at UCONN Health Center.

Congratulations to all of these bright students and of course teacher Deborah Day for her wonderful skill as a teacher and the positive influence she has on all of her students.