2026 Science Fair Participants
Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ is excited to highlight the brilliant middle school and high school students from around the region whose projects will be on display at the 2026 New Castle County Science Fair. Below you can find a comprehensive list of each student participant, the name of their project, and their school. Learn more about the New Castle County Science Fair .
Thank you to our 2026 Participants:
Middle School Individual Projects
- Botany
- Casie Keane
A21 - Unbe-leaf-able! How Plants Grow in Microgravity
Ursuline Academy - Natalie Vu
A22 - Which liquid is the best substitute for water in plant growth?
Red Lion Christian Academy
- Casie Keane
- Behavior & Social Science
- Jeffery Lee
B21 - Can Humans tell the difference between AI and Real Images
Red Lion Christian Academy - Harper Royle
B22 - Fizz, Facts, and Fake Labels
St Mary Magdalen
- Jeffery Lee
- Biochemistry
- Wendy Boyle
C21 - Eggs-perimenting with Plant-Based Baking
Ursuline Academy - Fiona Curry
C22 - Electrolyte Showdown
Ursuline Academy
- Wendy Boyle
- Chemistry
- Sienna Farrace
D21 - Which water filter is the best
Ursuline Academy - Ishita Injeti
D22 - Soap vs Grease
Odyssey Charter School - Catherine Scarborough
D23 - Slime Time
Ursuline Academy - Camille Thompkins
D24 - EGG-sperimenting With Egg Subtitutes
Ursuline Academy
- Sienna Farrace
- Computer Science
- Daisey Gallagher
E21 - Fresh Today, Gone Tomorrow
Ursuline Academy - Nandan Sendi Kumar
E22 - What's in Your Food? The Effect of Thermal Processing on Heavy Metals and Essential Dietary Minerals
Cab Calloway School of the Arts - London Simmonds
E23 - The Evolution of AI Imagery
Ursuline Academy - Maggie Simonds
E24 - Bot or Not
Ursuline Academy
- Daisey Gallagher
- Earth & Space Science
- Reena Vaishnavi Neetipalli
G21 - The Space-Marine Colony Initiative: Engineering a Smart Closed-Loop Algal Life Support System for Optimized CO2 Sequestration and Oxygen Production in Simulated Martian Conditions
Cab Calloway School of the Arts - Mickey Rod
G22 - Ocean in Motion
Ursuline Academy - Amelia Sullivan
G23 - Where Water Lies
Ursuline Academy
- Reena Vaishnavi Neetipalli
- Engineering
- Clementine Jauffret
H22 - The Pull-ability of Dog Leashes
Ursuline Academy
- Clementine Jauffret
- Environmental Science
- Mahalia Boswell
I21 - Can you garden without soil (hydroponics)?
Red Lion Christian Academy - Evalynn Jasso
I22 - Dark Seas
Ursuline Academy - Sana Karnik
I23 - Bright Lights, Big Heat
Odyssey Charter School - Anna Morgenstern
I24 - Rising Tides
Ursuline Academy - Shivank Nair
I25 - Which Material Filters Oily Water the Best
Odyssey Charter School
- Mahalia Boswell
- Medicine & Health
- Arsh Goel
K21 - Predicting Cardiovascular Disease Risk Using Machine Learning
Newark Charter School - Ava Hannig
K22 - Is Cancer Written in Your Genes… or Your Environment?
Ursuline Academy - Riddik Sri Satya Neetipalli
K23 - MalNutro: A Low-Cost, AI-Powered Computer Vision and Predictive Analytics System for Early Detection of Pediatric Malnutrition in Low-Resource Communities
Cab Calloway School of the Arts - Austin Park
K24 - Food Against Cancer
Independence School
- Arsh Goel
- Microbiology
- Kulma Atuguba
L21 - How Does Light Exposure Affect Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates?
Red Lion Christian Academy - Dylin Tiedemann
L22 - How Do Preservatives Affect the Way Bread Molds?
St Mary Magdalen
- Kulma Atuguba
- Physics
- Ava Ayotte
M21 - 3, 2, 1, Lift-off: How Different Surfaces Affect Hovercraft Takeoff Time.
Ursuline Academy - Saliah Frisby
M22 - Bounce Back!
Ursuline Academy - Prithak Gaire
M23 - Does container shape affect the cooling rate of water?
Alfred Waters Middle School - Skye German
M24 - Sticky Situation
Ursuline Academy - Quinn Klotzbach
M25 - Surface Showdown
Ursuline Academy - Mary Raziano
M26 - Let It Spin
Ursuline Academy - Millie Rollo
M27 - A Real Hit
Ursuline Academy - Lilly Townsend
M28 - P.P.P. - Pickleball Paddle's Power - Ursuline Academy
- Ava Ayotte
Middle School Team Projects
- Behavior & Social Science
- Elizabeth Denney
Grace Denney
MST21 - ”Kids vs. Adults how does age affect hearing, proprioception, and the prefrontal cortex.”
St Mary Magdalen
- Elizabeth Denney
- Botany
- Marlyn Kelson
Aubrey Perez
Charity Purnell
MST22 - How Light Impacts Plant Movement
Serviam Girls Academy - Malia Douglas
Journey Miles
MST23 - How Wi-Fi Affects Plant Growth
Serviam Girls Academy
- Marlyn Kelson
- Chemistry
- Sa'Mya Coverdale
Nahla Peguero
MST24 - How Heat Resistance Affects Pigments in Lipstick
Serviam Girls Academy - Maddie Gibbons
Taylor Hanna
Isla Robinson
MST25 - Cookie Chemistry
St Mary Magdalen - Justin Liu
Rowan Polis
Jack Raffo
MST26 - DIY Rust Removal
Sanford School
- Sa'Mya Coverdale
- Environmental Science
- Kori Neal
Naimah Ward
MST27 - How Plants Impact Ocean Acidification
Serviam Girls Academy
- Kori Neal
- Microbiology
- Minh - Ngoc Ho
Isabella Wiley
MST28 - How Household Substances Prevent Mold Growth on Tomatoes
Serviam Girls Academy - Pranav Karthika
Sanitha Munasinghe
Sai Nuthakki
MST29 - How does temperature affect bacteria and yeast?
Odyssey Charter School
- Minh - Ngoc Ho
- Physics
- Lukas Breeding
Westley Jordan
Everett Saienga
MST30 - Wingspan Wonder
St Mary Magdalen - Domenic Saienni
Nathan Wilson
MST31 - Mission Mass
St Mary Magdalen - Zachary Gillow
Evan Schneider
MST32 - Pitch Perfect: An experimental study of the doppler effect
Odyssey Charter School
- Lukas Breeding
High School Individual Projects
- Botany
- Matthew Bothum
A1 - The Effects of Increased Humidity and Nitrogen Content on Photosynthetic Processes of Spathiphyllum Wallisii
Newark Charter School - Kayla Miller
A2 - How Do Different Organic Fertilizers Affect a Pepper Plant?
Charter School of Wilmington
- Matthew Bothum
- Behavior & Social Science
- Brayden Hauser
B1 - Analyzing the Amish: The Future of Politics
Newark Charter School - Alannah Matich
B2 - Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic: Which Medium Maximizes Comprehension?
Dover High School - Shriyan Yamali
B3 - The Cost of Free Speech: Shifts in Independent Expenditures Across Party and Committee Lines After Citizens United
Newark Charter School
- Brayden Hauser
- Biochemistry
- Alek Lee
C1 - Ceramides as a Neurodegenerative Mechanism in Pesticide Exposure
Charter School of Wilmington - Maximilian Shi
C2 - The Accuracy of AlphaFold
Charter School of Wilmington - Chrstopher Zhuang
C3 - In Silico Design and In Vivo Microinjection-Based Evaluation of DNA Aptamers Targeting Tau Aggregation in Neurodegenerative Disease Models
Charter School of Wilmington
- Alek Lee
- Chemistry
- Charles He
D1 - Synthesis and Crystal Structures of New Lithium-Incorporated Quaternary Stannides
Charter School of Wilmington - Chris Liu
D2 - Lowering the Cryogenic Boundary: Deep Eutectic Perchlorate Composite Electrolytes for ISRU Iron Redox Flow Batteries on Mars
Charter School of Wilmington - Anish Simhan
D3 - The Effectiveness of Household Chemicals in Removing Pesticide Residues from Produce
Charter School of Wilmington
- Charles He
- Computer Science
- Rohit Karthik
E1 - Cross-Attention Gradient Transplantation (CAGT): A Novel Architecture for Mitigating Conflict in Multi-Task Learning
Charter School of Wilmington - Satya Kokonda
E2 - MatCreatioNN: Robust Multi-Objective AI Material Design for COâ‚‚ Conversion to Renewable Fuels
Charter School of Wilmington - Vedic Mukherjee
E3 - A Linear-Time Algorithm for Improving RNA Consensus Structure Prediction via Targeted Covariation Scoring
Cab Calloway School of the Arts - Aayush Singh
E4 - Bypassing the Alignment Tax: Preserving Semantic Dispersion and Lexical Diversity in Localized LLMs
MOT Charter School - Wika Sun
E5 - A Comparative Performance Benchmark of Quantized Lightweight Vision Models on Consumer Hardware
Archmere Academy - Troy Xiang
E6 - Can Conventional Computer Screens Imitate Light Fields In The Same Way True Holograms Do?
Charter School of Wilmington
- Rohit Karthik
- Earth & Space Science
- Evina Shingavi
G2 - CosmiQ
MOT Charter School
- Evina Shingavi
- Engineering
- Ayan Agrawal
H1 - Design and Development of a Low-Cost PEM Electrolyzer for Scalable Hydrogen Education
Charter School of Wilmington - Ishani Kulkarni
H2 - At what angle should pipes be to have the best power output for micro hydropower turbines?
Charter School of Wilmington - Jessica Tian
H3 - Design of a Cable-Driven Flexible Exoskeleton Rehabilitation Hand Controlled by EMG
St Andrew's School - Mingyang Zhang
H4 - Robust Transition Zone Recognition via Vision-Tactile Fusion for Intelligent Blind Navigation
St Andrew's School
- Ayan Agrawal
- Environmental Science
- Aashrith Banda
I1 - AIQUA-NET: Effectively Monitoring Real-Time Coastal Marine Environments Through An AI-LiDAR Based Quantitative Assessment Network Device
Charter School of Wilmington - Amanda Mao
I2 - Effects of Nutrient Supplements in Polystyrene Feed on Mealworm Growth and Polystyrene Consumption
Newark Charter School - Logan Omerovich
I3 - Exploring the Effects Chemical Plants Have On The Surrounding Air
Charter School of Wilmington - Sophie Pan
I4 - The Effect of Different Carbon-to-Nitrogen (C:N) Ratios on the Decomposition Rate in Composting when Earthworms are Present
Charter School of Wilmington
- Aashrith Banda
- Mathematics
- Aarush Gunjal
J1 - Evolutionary Dynamics of Cooperation Under State-Dependent Mutation
Newark Charter School - Emma Li
J2 - The Effect of Different Elliptic Curve Parameters on the Computational Efficiency of ECC-Based Encryption and Decryption
Charter School of Wilmington - Niranjana Sendil Kumar
J3 - Optimization of Facial Phenotype Similarity Systems for Genetic Disorders Using Monte Carlo Stochastic Modeling in Convolutional Neural Networks
Charter School of Wilmington - Nicole Zheng
J4 - The Effects of Different Planar Shape Tessellations on Material Usage Efficiency
Charter School of Wilmington
- Aarush Gunjal
- Medicine & Health
- Chloe Barone
K1 - The Effect of Airway Stenosis Location on Peak Expiratory Flow
Charter School of Wilmington - Michael Liu
K2 - Identify Cell Types and Markers by Integrative and Comparative Analysis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma scRNA-seq Datasets
Tower Hill School - Lara Mellaouch
K3 - Investigating the Effects of Microplastics on Intestinal Barrier Permeability
Charter School of Wilmington - Katie Mo
K4 - Could Human Hip Dysplasia be Treated Using Stem Cell Therapy?
St Andrew's School - Aarush Sudamalla
K5 - White Matter Hyperintensity Automated Segmentation on 7T MRI data to investigate abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease
Charter School of Wilmington - Aathirai Senthil Subramaniam
K6 - The Effect Of Household Allergens on Allergic Asthma Severity
Charter School of Wilmington - Microbiology
- David Chen
L1 - Treasure Hunt in the Dirt: An In Silico Search for the Next Generation of Antimicrobial Peptides
Tower Hill School - Ketaki Paranjape
L2 - Can Fruits Fight Bacteria? What Lemon, Guava, Pomegranate, and Cranberry did to E. coli
Charter School of Wilmington - Jonathan Yang
L3 - The Effects of Gastric Juice on Probiotics in Yogurt
Charter School of Wilmington
- David Chen
- Physics
- Bipra Dangol
M1 - The Effect of Resistor Value on the Life of a 9-Volt Battery in a Simple LED Circuit
Charter School of Wilmington - Laksh Patel
M2 - Transient Dynamics of Inverse Energy Cascades in Two-Dimensional Turbulence
MOT Charter School
- Bipra Dangol
High School Team Projects
- Behavior & Social Science
- Patricia Gomes
Sahasra Gotike
HST1 - Candy v.s. Compliments
Charter School of Wilmington - Anika Mehla
Anusha Sarwadi
HST2 - How Brainwave Activity Differs Between Spontaneous & Rehearsed Lies and How Age Influences These Patterns
Charter School of Wilmington - Camila Mendoza
Janis Gomez Torres
HST3 - The Effects of Different Meditation Types on Stress
Charter School of Wilmington
- Patricia Gomes
- Biochemistry
- Ariel Bryant
Joshyua Yeagins
HST4 – Husk
Upward Bound Classic – Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ - Lyanna Flores
Rowan Parikh
HST5 - Effects of Food Processing on the Detectability of Soy Allergen Proteins
Archmere Academy - Akhilan Nirav Babu
Shiv Nirav Patel
HST6 - Structural and Binding Energy Analysis of the L505H BRAF Mutation Conferring Resistance to Vemurafenib
Charter School of Wilmington
- Ariel Bryant
- Chemistry
- Sophie Lavoie Boone
Sophia DiGiacomo
HST7 - The Effects of Heat Protectant on Thermal Receipt Paper
Charter School of Wilmington
- Sophie Lavoie Boone
- Computer Science
- M'hamed Machich
Aditya Verma
HST8 - Design and Stress Testing of a Low-Cost Diode-Avalanche True Random Number Generator
MOT Charter School
- M'hamed Machich
- Engineering
- Jovan Abilash
Samuel Bird
HST9 - The Effect of Flute Height on Crush Strength
Charter School of Wilmington - Jeff Chen
Ashley Deganich
Rayya Karim
HST10 - AI-Assisted vs. Manual CAD Design in Early-Stage Mechanical Engineering
MOT Charter School - Daniel Chang
Eli Rust
HST11 - The Effect of Moisture on PLA Plastic
Charter School of Wilmington
- Jovan Abilash
- Enviromental Science
- Ziran Jin
Shella Li
HST12 - Fluoro-Silicon-Modified Polythiourethan Coplymer for Marine Antifouling Coatings
St Andrew's School - Anaya Pinjani
Emily Xu
HST13 - Effects of Soil and Fabric Type on Material Biodegradability
Charter School of Wilmington
- Ziran Jin
- Medicine & Health
- Zachary Benson
Destiny Gardner
HST14 - ThyroWell
Upward Bound Math Science - Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ - Emily Chen
Livia Gao Wang
HST15 - How do different coagulants affect the blood clotting process?
Charter School of Wilmington - Caitlyn Goodwin
Abbey Kline
HST16 - Which Lotion will keep skin the most Hydrated for 24 Hours?
Charter School of Wilmington
- Zachary Benson
- Physics
- Surya Buddha
Rayzel Joseph
HST17 - The Effect of Different Planetary Conditions On Muon Detection
Charter School of Wilmington - Rishi Sanjeev
Winston See
HST18 - Effects of Galactic Position on Globular Cluster Properties: A Hybrid Meta-Analytic and Observational Approach
Charter School of Wilmington
- Surya Buddha
- Zoology
- Chetan Kasukurthi
Viraj Mehta
HST19 - Effects of Nanoparticle Coatings (Control, Silicon Dioxide, Titanium Dioxide, & Graphene Oxide): A Solar Power Efficiency Study
Charter School of Wilmington
- Chetan Kasukurthi