LSU hosted the Region VII Science and Engineering Fair for middle and high school students Tuesday and Wednesday in the Royal Cotillion Ballroom.
Region VII includes schools in East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, Iberville and Ascension parishes.
Participants showcased research projects in 22 categories ranging from animal sciences to robotics. Middle school students competed Tuesday, and high school students competed Wednesday.
LSU faculty and graduate students were tasked with judging the projects.
Lisa Verma, senior director for professional development and community programs, explained that middle and high schools hold school-wide fairs, and the winners of each category go to the regional fairs. Students who place first or second in each category at regionals then advance to the state fair.
Verma also said LSU has been hosting the Region VII and state fairs since the 1950s. These fairs are affiliated with LSU’s Society for Science.
At the region VII fair, three high school students received bids to the International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be hosted in Arizona this May. At the state fair, up to seven students can receive bids to the international fair.
Verma said middle school students do not have an international fair. They have something different called the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.
Vanathi Vijaikrishnah placed first in the middle school division, and Ananya Baisakh placed second. Both students attend Glasgow Middle.
In the high school division, Berklee Zanders, a sophomore at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, won first place overall and received an international fair bid.
Sofia Zhu, a Baton Rouge Magnet senior, took second place and also received an international fair bid.
For her project, she used transformers to predict heat waves.
“I centered the project around Baton Rouge because it gets really hot here,” Zhu said. “It’s also very detrimental to vulnerable populations, so I thought having a predictive model would help with that issue.”
Other students presented projects that incorporated data from the social sciences.
Brinkley Bennett, a senior at St. Joseph’s Academy, assessed the current political climate across the United States for her project. She used microdata to create projections on how certain elections in the midterms will go.
“By taking about 6,500 responses from different people across the country, I’m able to map out different political climates in swing states especially, but also in Louisiana,” Bennett explained.
She said she works at the mayor’s office and has also worked with state representatives.
Bennett placed second in the technology enhances the arts category, and she received a bid for the international fair. She is committed to LSU and the Ogden Honors College and will join the LSU community in the fall.
LSU will host the Louisiana State Science and Engineering Fair from April 7-9.
Bennett said that she looks forward to competing in the state fair.
“I placed first at state in technology enhances the arts last year, so I’m really excited to bring back a new aspect of my project. Last year, it was just Louisiana-focused, but now I’m able to put it on a much larger scale,” she said.