2024 Blue Ribbon Judging Finalists
Listed by division, then project name.
Animal Sciences
Senior Division: WHY IS THE MARE ACTING LIKE A STALLION: NOVEL TESTS TO DIAGNOSE GRANULOSA CELL TUMOR (GCT)
Junior Division: Finding Planaria’s Perfect Supplement: Studying the Effects of Vitamins on Planarian Regeneration
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Senior Division: Prevention of Gun Violence through the buffering effects of Intellectual Humility in Traumatized Psychopaths
Junior Division: Can Positive Peer Mentorship Improve Anxiety?
Biochemistry
Senior Division: Targeting Amyloid-β Plaques: In Silico Protein Modeling of Novel Antibody for Halting Alzheimer’s Disease Progression
Junior Division: Silverized Nano-Trash: Novel Applications of Silver Nanoparticles Derived from Spent Coffee Grounds Utilizing Green Synthesis Technology
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Senior Division: Development of a Accessible pH-Monitoring Wound Dressing for Early Detection of Surgical Site Infections
Junior Division: Automatic Diabetic Retinopathy Screening
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Senior Division: Tartrazine Dysregulates Retrotransposons and p53 Expression in Drosophila melanogaster
Junior Division: Dirty Daphnia: Investing the effects of water pollution on Daphnia Magna
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Senior Division: BioVision: A Novel In-Silico Drug Discovery Pipeline to Predict Drug Candidates for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Junior Division: Detecting Stripe Rust in Wheat Plants using Machine Learning
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Senior Division: Acoustic Filtration: Harnessing Ultrasonic Technology for the Streamlined Removal of Microplastic Particles from Water Flow
Junior Division: From Landfill to Lab – Unveiling the Biodegradable Potential of Everyday Materials for Packaging
Microbiology
Senior Division: Ketones produced by Bacillus subtilis Bacteria: Assessing Inhibition and Morphological Changes on Deadly Bat Fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, (Year 9)
Junior Division: Patching Ozone Holes With Bacteria
Plant Sciences
Senior Division: Aqua-Arsenic Remediation: Analysis of the Oryza sativa metagenome and Wet-Lab Approach to Increase O. sativa Tolerance to Drought and Arsenic through Hyperexpression of Aquaporin genes OsNIP2;1, OsNIP3;2 and OsPIP2;2 (Year IV)
Junior Division: Wild Wildflowers Year 4:The Effects of Natural Fertilizers on the Germination of Wild Flowers
Translational Medical Sciences
Senior Division: Utilizing Indocyanine Green and Sodium Alginate with Microsphere Drug Delivery and Infrared Imaging: A Model to Create More Accessible Therapeutic and Diagnostic Tools for Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer
Junior Division: Boosted Biotics with Microbial Alchemy: A Low Cost, Scalable, Translational Approach to Propagate Probiotic Supplements in Fermented Food Matrices to Mitigate Malabsorption in Developing Countries
Biomedical Engineering
Senior Division: NitinArm: Engineering a Lighter and Cheaper Trans-Radial Prosthetic with Nitinol to Increase Dexterity
Junior Division: Novel Application of Olfactory Sensor Arrays in the Detection of Food and Environmental Allergens, Using Artificial Intelligence
Chemistry
Senior Division: From Crown to Current: Engineering Cellulosic Fiber-Based Battery Cells – A Safe and Scalable Alternative to Lithium Technology
Junior Division: Radioactivity with a Cloud Chamber
Embedded Systems
Senior Division: Networked Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and a Random Forest Model for Enhanced Water Contaminant Detection
Junior Division: Electrifying Footsteps
Energy: Sustainable Materials & Designs
Senior Division: DynaCap: A Dynamic Wheel Cover System for Improving the Range and Performance While Reducing CO2 Emissions from Automobiles
Junior Division: Bio-Power 2: How Soil Additives Affect Microbial Power Generation
Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics
Senior Division: Exploring Eutectic Alloys in Microgravity: Advancing Space-Based Manufacturing through Controlled Freezing
Junior Division: Modifying the Bass Drum Pedal for the Disabled
Environmental Engineering
Senior Division: Sustainable Bee Keeping Project – Sensor-assisted monitoring for operational, investigative, and predictive hive health management for honeybee colonies
Junior Division: Stabilizing Soil to Reduce Potential Building Foundation Movement by Using Sustainable Additives
Materials Science
Senior Division: Engineering a Greener Future: A Novel, Biodegradable, Self-Powered, Chitosan-Based Food Packaging Material
Junior Division: Define the Damage
Mathematics
Senior Division: Symmetry, fixed points and quantum billiards: A confluence of ideas
Junior Division: Find the total number of different ways from A to B
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Senior Division: Easy AED: An Autonomous VTOL Emergency Equipment Delivery Drone System
Junior Division: AssistBot: Service and Companion Robot for the Elderly, Lonely, and Impaired
Physics and Astronomy
Senior Division: Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability: Studying the Effects of Density and Velocity on Vortex Formations
Junior Division: Spectral properties of smart phone facial recognition
Systems Software
Senior Division: Developing Epileptic Activity and Trigger Content Detection Software using a Computer-Based Application for Real Time Monitoring and Seizure Reporting
Junior Division: Quantum Safeguard: Transforming Digital Security with Cutting-Edge Lattice-Based Encryption Strategies