Bellevue youth targeting salmon kills and mental health wins big at international science fair
Two teenagers from Bellevue, Wash., took home a combined $125,000 in the world’s largest high school science competition this month — one for a low-cost filter that could help save Puget Sound salmon, the other for an AI-powered device that expands access to music therapy.
Lakshmi Agrawal, a senior at Interlake High School, and Anusha Arora, a sophomore returning to Interlake, were among more than 1,700 students from nearly 60 countries competing at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix.
The annual competition, run by the Science Foundation, is the world’s largest science and engineering competition for high school students and awarded more than $7 million this year.
Agrawal, 18, won the Regeneron Youth Science Award and a $75,000 prize for developing a low-cost, biodegradable sponge that filters the chemical from ponds attached to coho salmon fill-offs in Puget Sound area streams. The chemical, 6PPD-quinone, has been identified as the primary cause of the die-off that kills up to 80% of older coho returning to some urban waterways before they spawn.
To tackle the problem, Agrawal turned to a raw material: waste from the jute plant. In lab tests, his sponge-like filters removed up to 80% of impurities from water containing tire particles, and captured heavy metals and other contaminants. Compared to other existing filtration methods, his method requires 85% less energy to produce and reduces costs by about 98%.
Agrawal is headed to MIT in the fall to study chemistry and chemical engineering.
Read more about his project here.
Arora, 15, received the F. Family Award. Thomson Leighton and Bonnie Berger for Family STEM Excellence and $50,000 to build a portable music therapy platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate personalized music in real time based on the listener’s emotional state.
The device reads biometric signals through fingerprint sensors and runs them through a set of 11 AI models to detect emotions and record dynamic music on the fly. In tests, users have shown measurable reductions in stress and anxiety and remain more engaged during therapy sessions than conventional methods.
Arora designed the platform to address a gap she identified in mental health care — music therapy is a clinically recognized treatment option, but cost, a lack of providers and poor insurance coverage keep it out of reach for many people.
Read more about his project here.
Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science, said she never fails to be inspired by the students who compete in the exhibition.
“They come from different backgrounds, different fields, and different parts of the world, and they take on some of our most urgent challenges with hard work, vision, and determination,” Ajmera said in a statement. “At a time when bold thinking is most needed, it is proof of what is possible.
