USC students earn honors and scholarships at science and engineering fair 
Seven Upper St. Clair High School students participated in the recent Covestro Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair – earning multiple recognitions including three first place finishes. Representing Upper St. Clair were sophomores—Kriti Shah, Alex Brufsky and Sahil Doshi; and juniors—Vedant Parekh, Vashisth Parekh, Connor Byrnes and Mahima Reddy.
Sahil Doshi’s project, “Phase Field Modeling of Dendritic Growth,” earned first place in the Senior Physics category. Sahil also won sponsor awards from Eaton Corporation, Innovation Works, and United States Steel as well as the Perseverance Award-Associate Scientist.
Vedant Parekh’s project, titled “Breathing Battery,” earned first place in the Senior Earth/Space/Environment category. The project also won affiliate awards from the American Meteorological Society and the ASU Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives as well as sponsor awards from the Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute of America and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. Vedant was also recognized with the Perseverance Award-Associate Scientist.
Vashisth Parekh, who was recognized with the Perseverance Award-Associate Scientist, earned first place in the Senior Chemistry Division with a project titled “eBatt: A Printable Battery.” In addition, he won sponsor awards from Alcoa Technical Center, American Chemical Society, CMU Leonard Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach, Chemical Association of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, and United States Steel as well as scholarship awards from Carnegie Mellon University, Chemical Association of Pittsburgh, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, La Roche College and St. Francis University. Vashisth and his teacher sponsor, Ms. Lynn Kistler, have been invited to attend the Society of Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh/American Chemical Society Annual Awards Dinner on May 23, at Duquesne University.
Mahima Reddy earned a scholarship award from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the Perseverance Award-Associate Scientist for her project, “Determining if T-bet Overexpression Induces Immune Factors In Vitro.”
Kriti Shah, who collaborated with Alex Brufsky, earned the Perseverance Award-Associate Scientist for her project “ULuminate—Human Light Bulb.”.
Connor Byrnes earned a scholarship award from the Duquesne University Summer Undergraduate Research Program as well as an affiliate award from the Stockholm Junior Water Prize/Water Environment Federation. Connor’s project was titled “StreamDuino.”
Now in its 77th year, the Covestro Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair competition invites students in grades 6-12 to submit research projects in various fields of science, mathematics and engineering. The event was held on April 1-2, 2016, at Heinz Field. More than 1,200 students from more than 100 schools in Pennsylvania and one county in Maryland competed for more $1 million in cash prizes and scholarships.
