3 Westchester students are Intel finalists
- Yorktown's Andrew Amini researched how to monitor epileptic seizures.
- Hastings' Katharine Berman tracked the development of a blood-borne disease.
- Ossining's Soon il Higashino looked at amphibian deaths and their link to environment.
It was an honor to be nominated one of 300 semifinalists for the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search, but three Westchester students on Wednesday learned that they've made the final cut, being named among the prestigious science fair's 40 finalists.
As finalists, Yorktown's Andrew Amini, Hastings' Katharine Berman, and Ossining's Soon Il Higashino have been invited to Washington, D.C., in March to present their work, meet with noted scientists, undergo final judging and compete for $1,012,500 in awards, including the three top awards of $150,000 each.
The Intel Science Talent Search is a science fair on steroids, identifying cutting-edge student scientists who have gone on to take their place in the world of science. Alumni hold more than 100 of the world’s most coveted science and math honors, including the Nobel Prize and the National Medal of Science.
Finalists were selected based upon their scientific research and also on their overall potential as future leaders of the scientific community. A trip to the White House is on their itinerary.
Read the list of Intel finalists here
Monitoring epilepsy
Amini's research was titled "Automatic Seizure Onset and Severity Prediction with a Single, Strategically-placed, Bipolar Electroencephalogram."
His science-research teacher, Michael Blueglass, said Wednesday’s honor is just the latest in a long line of accolades for the senior’s research.
He won a spot at last year’s Westchester Science Fair and won a gold award and was a grand finalist at The International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering, and Environment) Project, known as I-SWEEP. He won a couple of special awards at last year’s “other Intel,” the Intel Science and Engineering Fair, or Intel ISEF. In the fall, he was named a Siemens semifinalist, another huge honor.
“He has gone through them all,” Blueglass said with more than a little pride in his student.
Amini puts Wednesday’s honor at the top of that considerable list.
“This is by far the biggest science-research honor I’ve ever gotten,” he said. “What comes with it, going to the White House and meeting with these important people, really puts it into perspective.”
All of the awards are related to Amini’s work studying epilepsy. He has been working on a less-invasive way of monitoring electrical impulses in the brain, with the hopes of predicting the severity of epileptic seizures.
Previous research involved hundreds of electrodes on the scalp or even cutting the skull to access the brain directly. That meant long recovery time.
Amini explored the possibility of placing only two electrodes in the sub-galeal space between the scalp and the skull. Being able to predict a seizure, he said, can give the epilepsy patient time to get into a safe position to avoid harming himself or herself.
He says his research was inspired, in part, by his great aunt, who had long-undiagnosed epilepsy.
Amini has been accepted, early decision, to Cornell, where he hopes to get on the pre-med track and specialize in material science and orthopedic surgery.
A study of blood
In Hastings, Katharine Berman's work is titled "Effects of Calreticulin Mutations on Pathogenesis of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms."
In a nutshell, the Hastings senior has spent years – summers included -- looking at a blood disease and how one specific mutation may contribute to the development of acute myeloid leukemia, a disease that kills within six months.
"My research focuses on how this particular mutation plays a role in a specific pathway that leads to the formation of a type of blood cell. Last summer, we found that the mutation leads to excess blood cells being produced which leads to the disease."
Pretty much what every kid does over the summer, right?
Berman said she was in French class Wednesday when the news arrived that she was a finalist, and her science teacher, Melissa Shandroff, came in to congratulate her.
“I have been looking forward to this day with a bit of nervousness,” Berman said with a laugh.
It has been a long time coming. Berman has been researching her project for the better part of three years.
Berman has been accepted to Yale University but is undecided about her course of study.
“I’m very interested in chemistry and biology, but I also love history and Russian language,” she said.
‘Surreal’ news
Ossining’s Soon il Higashino is a finalist for her work: "Species Richness of Cutaneous Bacteria Varies with Urbanization: Implications of the Effects of Habitat Conditions on Defense Mechanisms of Plethodon cinereus."
“There are a lot of amphibian declines around the world,” the senior said. “I wanted to see what factors contribute to amphibian declines and what characteristics of amphibians might help protect them. I studied habitat factors, including urbanization and habitat types, or the distance from a body of water, and I compared that to bacteria found on amphibians’ skin that might help protect it.”
She said she was inspired to study amphibians after seeing salamanders at a Teatown environmental summer camp a few years ago.
Fast forward three years, to Tuesday night, when Higashino got the call from Intel that her research had made her a finalist.
“It’s still surreal. It feels like it’s something I never really dreamed of,” she said Wednesday. “I never imagined myself in that same way as the other finalists from my school.”
One of her first calls was to one of her science research teachers, Angelo Piccirillo.
“When I answered Soon il’s call, all I could hear was screaming in the background,” Piccirillo said. “I said ‘I guess you got the call.’”
Before long, Higashino was on a group chat with some friends. By the time she arrived at school on Wednesday, the word was most definitely out.
This is Ossining’s third finalist since the science-research program began in 2001.
“Personally, as a teacher, it’s a combination of gratitude and admiration for all the work the kids put in,” Piccirillo said. “It is truly amazing. We’re talking about a country of 300 million people. To think of being in the top 40. It’s not an easy thing.”
(Attention, Princeton: Higashino said you are her college first choice, followed by Colgate, the University of Chicago and Vassar. She wants to study environmental science. The people at Intel have her phone number. Do you?)
Westchester had 27 semifinalists, from Ossining, Byram Hills, Ardsley, Briarcliff, Dobbs Ferry, Edgemont, John Jay, Hastings, Fox Lane, Mamaroneck, Somers and Yorktown high schools.
The contest draws students from schools with elite science programs; not all local high schools enter.