ASA Professional Award winners on stage at Cobo Hall

The Detroit and Ann Arbor chapters continued their long-standing tradition of serving as a professional awards judging team by awarding students for their use of statistics in their projects at the Michigan Science and Engineering Fair (MSEF) March 13.

This year, the state-level MSEF was held immediately after the regional Science and Engineering Fair of Metro Detroit (SEFMD) at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. There were 69 state-level qualifying students who presented their posters, still located among the rows of approximately 2,000 posters from the SEFMD.

Judges this year included Anamaria Kazanis, Ruth Cassidy, Karry Roberts, Lance Heilbrun, David Corliss, Bob Thomas, and Bern DeBacker from the Detroit Chapter and Nicholas Moloci, Mary Ann Ritter, and Andrew Ekstrom from the Ann Arbor Chapter. Bringing together academic and industrial strengths, the team individually reviewed posters and then chose from the best as a group.

The winners are as follows:

One $200 Award of Excellence

• Salena Prakah-Asante, “Increasing Soil Fertility via Carbon Sequestration with Slow Release Biochars,” Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, Bloomfield Hills

Eight $50 Awards of Merit

• Yang (Mark) Chen, “Active Learning DNN: Automated Engineering Design Optimization for Fluid,” Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, Bloomfield Hills
• Andrew Fischer, “Effects of Sugar and Potassium Nitrate as Rocket Fuel,” Detroit Catholic Central High School, Novi
• Aarushi Ganguly, “Probabilistic and Image Analysis of Parkinson’s Disease,” Greenhills School, Ann Arbor
• Paul Havern and Reis Ciaramitaro, “Effect of Varying Currents on the Magnetic Field and Magnetite Removal,” Macomb Mathematics Science Technology Center, Warren
• Chaz Lumpkin and Joseph Kovac, “Comparing Drag Force Reductions Among Varying Angles in Tractor-Trailer Panels,” Macomb Mathematics Science Technology Center
• Neha Narayan, “Graphene Sand Synthesis and Applications in Water Filtration and Desalination,” Salem High School, Canton
• Katherine Pan, “Developing and Adapting a Method for Leaf Area Imaging, Data Processing, and Association Mapping of Maize Leaf #6 Traits,” Detroit Country Day Upper, Beverly Hills
• Shriya Reddy, “Noninvasive Diagnosis of Melanoma Using OCT and Bioconjugated Gold Nanospheres,” Northville High School, Northville

11 Certificates of Recognition

• Syeda Islam
• Amol Kirtane
• Colton Morris
• Vihaar Nandigala
• Noor Nashashibi and Raneem Al-shihabi
• Ruhi Nayak
• Arionna Nelson
• Akash Rathod
• Nicklaus Sicilia and Erin Wycoff
• Adam Sun
• Madeleine Yang

Students receiving certificates of recognition also received a copy of Significance magazine and ASA stickers.