Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC update: Top 300 semi-finalists announced

Congratulations to the Top 300 Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC Semi-finalists. 18 students, 13 projects from the Synopsys Championship are among the Top 300 semi-finalists in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge competition. More than 1800 middle school students from across the United States participated in the 2024 competition. The Top 30 students (to be announced on Sept 18th) will compete for more than $100,000 in awards and prizes. Finalists will compete virtually October 24 – 30 by participating in team challenges in addition to being judged on their science research projects.

The Regeneron Science Talent Search 2025 application is open now until November 7th. In addition to the Intel ISEF and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge programs, the Society for Science & the Public also owns and produces the Regeneron STS, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious competition for high school seniors.

ISEF, the International Science & Engineering Fair, visited Los Angeles, CA this year with 1600 finalists participating with the sponsorship of Regeneron. Finalists represented 49 states and 63 countries. Congratulations to all the participants from the Synopsys Championship and to the award winners announced on May 16 (special awards) and May 17 (scientific category awards). ISEF winners from the Championship are listed here.

Special congratulations to Michelle Wei for her ISEF top award, the Regeneron Young Scientist Award, as the finalist who was selected for her commitment to innovation in tackling challenging scientific questions, using authentic research practices and creating solutions to the problems of tomorrow. Her project in Systems Software is Solving Second-Order Cone Programs in Matrix Multiplication Time. She also joins Andrew Liang in being a “First Award” winner for their innovative research. His project in Behavioral and Social Sciences is GaitNet: A Medically Interpretable Video-Based System for Assessing Parkinsonian Gait Impairment Severity Using 2-Stream Spatiotemporal Neural Network.

The Athena Fellowship is a virtual summer fellowship for rising 9th-12th grade female students designed to empower future female leaders in STEM. Created by young women from Stanford, MIT, and Harvard, the fellowship seeks to identify top female students across the country. The 2024 Summer Fellowship will run from July 8th to August 2nd.

Applications for the 2024 Summer Fellowship are due June 12th. Admissions are rolling, meaning that applications are reviewed as they are received. Students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. To learn more and apply, please visit www.athenafellowship.org. If you have any questions, please email info@athenafellowship.org.

Congratulations to our outstanding Santa Clara County students! 119 Synopsys Championship participants (105 projects) qualified to compete virtually at the California State Science & Engineering Fair on April 16th.  Winners were announced online and are posted on the CSEF web site.  SCVSEFA has a summary page of all 70 winning participants from the Synopsys Championship.

Special congratulations to Gauri Todur who was awarded Project of the Year in the Senior Division and Sophie Tong who was awarded Project of the Year in the Junior Division!

SCVSEFA announced the 2024 Synopsys Championship winners on the web site on April 7, click here to see results, including the students who qualified for CSEF and Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC) nominees.

The 2024 Synopsys Championship Awards Ceremony is set for April 7th at the Heritage Theater in Campbell.  See the Winner Summary page for a list of students who will be invited to the ceremony.

The Awards Ceremony is an ‘Invitation Only’ event for each student plus 2 guests. Middle school students should arrive at 12:40 PM. High school students should arrive at 3:10 PM.

If any students have changed their email addresses since applying to the 2024 fair, they should notify fairmanager@science-fair.org at once.

CSEF posted the list of qualified students from the Synopsys Championship on their web page. They will also individually send each student an email invitation to submit their CSEF application through a special URL crafted just for the students. If you’re named on the list but have not received an invitation check your spam folder and other email accounts before emailing CSEF@usc.edu to request a new invitation – perhaps to a different email address – as soon as possible.
Follow CSEF instructions to complete your application by the March 26th deadline. The project presentation materials and all forms are due no later than two days after: by March 28th. Important: Do not submit your original forms 1B, 4, 5a or 6a to CSEF. You must submit copies with an official SRC/IRB signature(s). If you have questions please contact fairmanager@science-fair.org.

To learn more about how one is chosen for CSEF please visit our Judging FAQ for Students page.

Congratulations to Michelle Wei, who participated in the 2022, 2023 & 2024 Synopsys Championship for winning 3rd Place, Zeyneb Zaya who participated in 2023 & 2024 Synopsys Championship for winning 5th Place, and Arnav Chakravarthy, from Cupertino, CA for winning 9th Place. Forty finalists, including eight students from California, participated in the finals week competition of Regeneron STS March 7 – 13, 2024. Regeneron STS is the nation’s oldest science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. The competition was in-person this year, culminating in a public Exhibition of projects on March 11th and a formal awards ceremony on March 12th.

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the 2024 Synopsys Championship. A special Thank you to our sponsors, teachers and our great volunteers for making the event successful. Stay tuned for the winners listing.