Student scientists claim top prizes in Greater SD Science and Engineering Fair

Two Canyon Crest Academy juniors claimed two of the four sweepstakes awards in the senior division of the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair.

Kate Wang won for her project “Machine Learning and Pharmacophore-Based Drug Discovery for Treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy” and Benjamin Faktor won for “Mathematical Analysis of A Fluid in a Polyhedral Domain.” With their life sciences projects, they have now qualified to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair at Anaheim, tentatively scheduled for May 2020.

The Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair awards ceremony was canceled due to the coronavirus so awards were handed out virtually online.

Cathedral Catholic High School junior Francisco Catanzaro won a Senior Physical Science Grand Award, CCA sophomore Andrew Gao was a runner-up for the senior life sciences award, Nandana Madhukara, an eighth-grader at Pacific Trails Middle School, was a Junior Physical Science runner-up and CCA junior Christopher Caligiuri won a special award.

Several local students won first place in category awards including:
--Animal Sciences: Aaron Huang, CCA
--Behavioral health and social sciences: Anjana Shriram and Hari Krishnamurthy from CCA
--Biochemistry: Jessie Gan from San Diego Jewish Academy, Kyra Wu from CCA, Daniel Wang from Torrey Pines High School
--Computer science: Andrew Kuang from CCA and Christopher Um from Torrey Pines
--Microbiology: Edward Liu from CCA
--Plant sciences: Skyler Williams from CCA
--Medicine and health sciences: Andrew Gao, Jason Tang, Wanyi Zhu and Ryan Huang from CCA and Lynne Xu from Torrey Pines

Several students also took home professional society awards including Dylan Feldstein and Mason Holmes from CCA, Maya Zagursky and Cooper Lynch from San Diego Jewish Academy and Rahul and Rikhil Rao from Pacific Trails.