Press release from Alachua County Public Schools
ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – A Howard Bishop Middle School student won a first-place award at the State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida, held recently in Lakeland, with several other Alachua County Public School students also earning recognition at the event for their research projects.
Eighth-grader Aradhya Kasala, who is enrolled in Bishop’s Academy of Technology and Advanced Studies, took top honors in the Junior Earth and Environmental Sciences category with her project, ‘Development of a Low-Cost Coagulant Based Water Purification System; and Validation of Water Quality via a Novel Real-Time IoT Monitoring.’ In layman’s terms, the project addresses creating an affordable way to clean and constantly check water quality. Kasala’s project also took first place in the Alachua Regional Science and Engineering Fair in February.
At the state fair, Kasala won three additional special prizes, including the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovator’s Challenge, the Florida Association for Water Quality Control, and the Cantwell Award from the Sierra Club Florida.
Ft. Clarke Middle School 8th-grader Aung Pyae was awarded third place in the Junior Physics category. Pyae qualified for the state fair with a first-place award in the regional fair. Eastside High School senior Shiven Sharma won fourth place in the Senior Biomedical category for his project, which was also awarded first place in the regional competition.
Eastside High School sophomore Pranav Manam, who won the Best in Show prize in the regional fair, won an honorable mention at the state fair for his study on increasing a race car’s grip on the track without sacrificing speed. Manam, who is an International Baccalaureate student at Eastside, will be competing in the prestigious Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona in May.
Other special award winners in the state competition include Trishaa Urs from Gainesville High School, Saharsh Pothu from Eastside High School, and Meha Srivastava and Jane Han from Lincoln Middle School.