3 Sage Hill Students Qualify in Top 6 at OCSEF, Advance to Intel Science and Engineering Fair
3 Sage Hill Students Qualify in Top 6 at OCSEF, Advance to Intel Science and Engineering Fair
Three Sage Hill students have qualified for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair to be held in May in Pittsburgh.
Junior Grant Sheen, sophomore Sasha Ronaghi and freshman Jian Park were chosen as three of the top six finalists at the Orange County Science & Engineering Fair on March 25.
Additionally, Junior Alex Desbans qualified for the California State Science Fair with a first place division win in the Botany Applications category.
Sheen won first place in the Mathematics and Software category, as well as the overall sweepstakes award for his project, Wireless Brainwave Classification for Alzheimer's Patients via Efficient Neural Network Computation.
“My research is thought recognition for Alzheimer's patients through wireless brainwave classification. Alzheimer’s disease diminishes the ability to express one’s thoughts and basic needs, causing communication issues between patients and caretakers,” Sheen said. “I bridged this communication barrier by developing an efficient neural network model and a new training algorithm to classify four thoughts of an Alzheimer's patient at a 90% accuracy.”
Sheen said he is excited to compete at Intel ISEF and is grateful for the opportunity.
“I hope that my thought recognition software can restore the voices and identities of millions of Alzheimer's patients around the world,” he said.
Ronaghi won first place in the Applied Mechanics/Structures & Mechanisms/Manufacturing category for her project, Designing a Breathable and Water Repellent Material for Wound Dressings Using Nanotechnology.
She has been participating in OCSEF since middle school. She got the idea for this year’s project after having surgery last summer.
“One of my problems was having a wound dressing. It was really uncomfortable. I had to change it a lot. I had to keep maintaining my wound. I didn’t like that, so I built a better alternative,” she said.
She said this project took her hundreds of hours to complete.
“I’m really grateful for Sage’s support in everything I do. … The teachers that let me have the time to go and do my research -- I’m really thankful for that,” she said.
Science teacher Anie Robinson was Ronaghi’s faculty advisor but noted that Ronaghi mostly worked independently with a graduate student on this project.
“I’m so impressed by the hard work and dedication it took to get her to this point,” Robinson said.
Park won second place in the Mathematics and Software category for his project, On the Modular Properties of Hypothetical Collatz Loops.
Math teacher Rena Dear served as the faculty advisor for both Sheen and Park.
“I am really proud of these boys. Both of them balance a challenging course schedule and lots of extracurricular activities – that they were able to win this without taking away from their other commitments is especially notable,” she said. “Other schools have lots of time at school allotted along with guidance for these projects, and these boys did this all on their own. Also, Jian is only a ninth grader. I can’t wait to see what he does at Sage!”
Sage Hill School
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