Karry Roberts, Detroit Chapter Secretary

Left: ASA judges Karry Roberts, Rob Kushler, Nicholas Moloci, Xianggui (Harvey) Qu, and David Corliss with their Award of Excellence poster. Right: ASA judges Mary Ann Ritter and Anamaria Kazanis, District 3 Vice Chair.

Promoting statistical analysis in high-school science projects, members of the Detroit and Ann Arbor chapters enjoyed being professional awards judges at the Michigan Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF). This was the chapters’ second year at the state level, extending a tradition the two chapters have maintained for many years at the regional level.

The team of seven judges for the statistical special awards included Anamaria Kazanis, District 3 Vice Chair; Karry Roberts, David Corliss, Xianggui (Harvey) Qu, and Rob Kushler from the Detroit Chapter; and Mary Ann Ritter and Nicholas Moloci from the Ann Arbor Chapter.

The MSEF displays the best high-school–level posters from the regional science fairs throughout the state. The fair was held at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday, April 7. Winners in various science categories at this fair go on to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh.

This year, the MSEF had a total of 50 posters. At each poster, the student was present, giving judges the opportunity to interview him or her and learn about their scientific approach. Initially, the judges worked in review teams, but, later, all seven reviewed the best posters to determine the higher awards.

ASA professional awards winners on stage at Kettering University

At the end of the event, the judges kicked off the awards ceremony by calling all certificate and award winners onto the stage, where they encouraged the students to take statistical courses to ensure proper statistical analysis of their data for all college majors.

Award Winners

One $200 Award of Excellence

• “The Effects of Commercial Pesticides Upon Vanessa cardui” by Mallory Snyder from Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy

Five $50 Awards of Merit

• “The Effects of Boron Compounds on Amyloid-beta 42 Plaque Aggregation” by Zaid Haque, Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy
• “Genome-Wide Analysis of Histone Modifications in Saccharomyces cerevisiae” by Rohit Mital from Indus Center for Academic Excellence
• “Effectiveness of Homemade Activated Carbon Water Filter in Removing Pollutants” by Neha Narayan, an independent high-school student
• “Econometric Model of USGDP Through Artificial Neural Networks” by Shivan Prasad from Detroit Country Day Upper School
• “Quantifying the Effects of Novel Mutations in Putative T2D Regulatory Loci” by Collin Wang from Detroit Country Day Upper School

Nine Recognition Certificates

• Sai Anantapantula
• Melissa Beyrand
• Maria Fields
• Jared Freeman
• Samuel Maher
• Bhuvna Murthy
• Vihaar Nandigala
• Salena Prakah-Asante
• Akash Rathod

Students at all award levels received certificates and a copy of Significance magazine. The Detroit Chapter obtained reimbursement from the ASA Chapter Stimulus Funds for their contribution to this activity, which covered much of the award expenses. The Ann Arbor Chapter also contributed to the awards.

Eight of the ASA Professional Awards winners were recognized with MSEF category awards. One of these students was Samuel Maher, who received a recognition certificate and will be attending the ISEF as a MSEF Grand Award recipient.