SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 72nd Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF) was held this year at the Balboa Park Activity Center, on Wednesday, March 18th. The awards ceremony was held on Thursday, March 19th at The Magnolia, with Ms. Áine Shivnan, VP at Qualcomm, as keynote speaker. $40k in prizes were awarded, with top projects advancing to the California Science and Engineering Fair and 8 Grand Award-winning projects qualifying for the prestigious International Science and Engineering Fair. Friday, March 20th of fair week was student visitation day, where students from San Diego area schools viewed projects, explored innovative research, and got inspired to pursue STEM and enter their local science fairs. Fair week ended on Saturday, March 21st, when the GSDSEF welcomed the general public to explore the students’ outstanding projects.

Top winners were:

Jonah Figueroa, 7th Grade, The Rhoades School, Grand Award, Quantifying Effects of Commercial Fertilizers on Cyanobacteria Growth

Uma Kattamuri, 7th Grade, Oak Valley Middle School, Grand Award, Elevated CO2 During Kalanchoe pinnata Growth Reveals Enhanced Antiproliferative and Synergistic Therapies

Paul Schnabl, 8th Grade, The Bishop’s School, Grand Award, ARGOS: Machine Learning Irrigation Reduced Water Usage and Improved Growth

Aishah Siddiqui, 7th Grade, Bright Horizon Academy, Grand Award, Joynt Quest – A Therapeutic Glove Integrated with a Digital Game-Based Rehabilitation System For Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Maya Goel & Shanmei Lee, 6th Grade, The Rhoades School, Grand Award: Runner Up, Investigating Regrowth in a Coastal Sage Scrub Burned Habitat

Joie Green, 8th Grade, Muirlands Middle School, Grand Award: Runner Up, Soon I will be Invisible: How to Direct Energy with Topological Metamaterials

Olivia Liu, 7th Grade, La Jolla Country Day School, Grand Award: Runner Up, Soap, a Friend or Foe of Skin Bacteria?

Manas Pisipati, 6th Grade, The Rhoades School, Grand Award: Runner Up, A Study of the Effects of Salt Nucleation on Doped Amino Acids

Giles Del Priore & Ronald Wyatt, 12th Grade, Eastlake High School, Grand Award, Design and Evaluation of a Behaviorally-Grounded, Caregiver Governed AI Companion for Individuals with Memory Impairment

Ethan Hu, 9th Grade, The Bishop’s School, Grand Award, Configurable Electromagnetic Refreshable Tactile Display with FDM Printable Bistable Cam

Claire Lim, 11th Grade, Canyon Crest Academy, Grand Award, Inducible TLR4 Decoy for Targeting Microglial Activation to Reduce Neuronal Degeneration in Parkinson’s Disease

Kayley Xu, 11th Grade, The Bishop’s School, Grand Award, Designing a Passive All-Dielectric Metasurface for Retinal Disease Intervention Through Beam Steering

Charles Brum, 9th Grade, Cathedral Catholic High School, Grand Award: Runner Up, BeeCast: A Novel Predictive Model Using Neural Network to Predict Colony Collapse

Shounak Ray Chaudhuri, 12th Grade, Francis Parker School, Grand Award: Runner Up, Novel Scalable Multiphase Autonomous Vehicle Systems for Emerging Markets

Ryan Rezaei, 12th Grade, Canyon Crest Academy, Grand Award: Runner Up, Omni-Prot: Unifying Protein Function Prediction with PLM-Centric Fusion

Janet Yang, 11th Grade, Canyon Crest Academy, Grand Award Runner Up, Neuro-Behavioral Convergence: A Multimodal Approach to Stroke Risk Assessment

Full results and project showcase are available online.

About the GSDSEF

Since 1955, the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF) has provided an inspiring experience in science and engineering for tens of thousands of San Diego and Imperial County students, motivating them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This regional competition challenges students to go beyond classroom studies to do independent research – to ask compelling questions, to design and implement innovative solutions, and to present and defend results to judges who are professionals in their fields. The GSDSEF brings together 800 of the best middle and high school students, 400+ judges who are professionals in their fields and over 60 professional societies and organizations, with $40k in prizes awarded.

The GSDSEF fosters creativity and innovation through inquiry, celebrates students’ STEM achievements, and showcases how young minds can make an impact in the present and future. Many of these student scientists are conducting world-class research and conducting groundbreaking experiments in fields ranging from Astronomy to Zoology, such as the discovery of cures for diseases, formulations of new vaccines, cancer research, applying AI to enhance medical diagnoses, using biomimicry for water conservation, novel drone technology, advances in micro robotics and autonomous driving technology. The GSDSEF is the highest-level STEM competition in the region and one of the oldest, most respected and competitive in the world. The GSDSEF is a 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at gsdsef.org and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Media Contact:
Sany Zakharia
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