Program
Pioneers of STEM High School Summit 2026
October 17th, 2026
| Time (ET) | Session |
|---|---|
| 11:00 – 11:10 AM | Welcome & Opening Remarks Lale Devany and Andrea Lee |
| 11:10 – 11:40 AM | Keynote Speaker Dr. Anton Oliynyk, Department of Chemistry, Hunter College, City University of New York Title: High-school and freshman college student involvement in cutting-edge research: machine-learning prediction of functional materials with experimental validation |
| 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM | Oral Presentations (Breakout Rooms) See breakout rooms with listings below |
| 12:45 – 1:00 PM | Break / Transition |
| 1:00 – 1:45 PM | Poster Session 1 See poster listings below. |
| 1:45 – 1:55 PM | Break / Transition |
| 1:55 – 2:40 PM | Poster Session 2 See poster listings below. |
| 2:45 – 3:00 PM | Closing Remarks & Thank You |
Oral Presentations
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM
Breakout Room 1 – Biomedical & Health Sciences
| Presenter | High School | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Ella Ye | Midwood HS | Transforming Growth Factor-BETA1-Induced Downregulation of Sodium Taurocholate Co-Transporting Polypeptide in Mouse-Passaged Primary Human Hepatocytes: Implications for Chronic HBV Infection and Hepatic Fibrosis |
| Kabir Kalsi | Pompton Lakes HS | Comparative Effects of Lipid Transfection Reagents on Transfection Efficiency and IL-1 Cytokine Induction in H1299 Cells |
| Sriteja Thodima | West Windsor-Plainsboro HS South | Tumor Mutation Burden Limits Detection of the SBS1 Molecular Clock |
| Sophia Hom | Bridgewater-Raritan HS | The Impact of Ozone Exposure on Cerebellar Microglia Counts |
| Michael Weinstein | Bergen County Academies | Investigating Recoverability in IAPP Signaling Through Experimental and Dynamical Modeling |
Breakout Room 2 – Environment, Plant & Microbial Science
| Presenter | High School | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Michelle Pavlov | Midwood HS | Effects of Nitrate and Microplastic Concentrations On Wild and RAF Mutant Drosophila melanogaster |
| Aras Taylor | Deep Run HS | The Neighboring Effect in Astrobotany |
| Madeline Ahn | The Pingry School | Sequencing Duckweed DNA as a Potential Biofuel Source |
| Aviana Singh | Bergen Tech – Teterboro | Which genes show the greatest changes in gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to drought stress? |
Breakout Room 3 – Computing, AI & Technology
| Presenter | High School | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Jerry Qiu | Montgomery HS | Deep Learning for Single Cell Latent Embedding, Cell Type Annotation, and Marker Discovery |
| Philipe Pajishvili | Union County Magnet HS | Introducing Lumen: Accessible Communication for Everyone! |
| Arya Joshi | East Brunswick HS | Article Annotator |
| Niral Parmar | Edison Academy Magnet School | Landmark Determinability Constrains Automated Murine Locomotor Assessment from Home-Cage Video |
| Shukurolloh Davlatov | Franklin D. Roosevelt HS | TakeTime: Medication Tracker |
Poster Presentations
Poster Session 1 (1:00 – 1:45 PM)
| Presenter | High School | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Kaliyah Benjamin | Midwood HS | How does the type of usage of soil in Urban environments impact the DSPs (Dynamic Soil Properties) in terms of chemical composition and Soil Health? |
| Maya Wellington | Midwood HS | Modeling NYC Produce Disparities and Cardiovascular Risk in Drosophila |
| Ariana Dervishi | Leonia HS | Data-Driven Astronomy: An Overview of Analyzing the Universe |
| Caelyn Park | Morris County School of Technology | Structural Organization and Evolution of Cluster AZ Integrases |
| Nanami Ishihara | Bergen County Academies | Building an AI-Powered Language Learning Platform |
| Renae Thakur | Leonia HS | Engineering Biofilters for Flood Resilience and Water Quality in Leonia |
| Baki Dogukanli | Uskudar American Academy | Design and Experimental Implementation of a Hydroelectric Energy Conversion System for Battery Charging |
| Dominique Spike | Midwood HS | Diplomoceras as a Monospecific Genus Exhibiting Dimorphic Covariance and a Complex Gestational Strategy: A Geometric Morphometrics Approach |
| Zoe Murphy | Morris County School of Technology | Genomic Analysis and Publication of Landoltia punctata cDNA Sequences |
| Jacob Tafliovich | Bergen County Academies | Cookie Rejector Chrome Extension |
| Priyankashri Agaram Tholkappiyan | Sachem East HS | Comparative Analysis of Microbial Fuel Cells Harnessing Energy with Chlorella & Pseudomonas fluorescens |
| Bellina Chung | Leonia HS | Synthesis of Stereo-Defined Phosphorothioate Dinucleotide |
| Swathi Kumar | Montgomery HS | Promoting Interest in Plasma Physics Among High School Girls |
| Kako Uemura | Midwood HS | Investigating Bacterial Growth in Artemia Cultures |
| Ryan Yu | Bergen County Academies | Optimization of One-dimensional Lepidocrocite Titanates for Dye Photodegradation |
| Rukhshona Achilova | Midwood HS | Investigating the Effects of NPF Mutation and Skullcap on Feeding Behavior and Brain Function in Drosophila |
| Maya Chhada | Bergen County Academies | Evaluating the Interactive Impacts of Biochar, Basalt, and AMF on POC and MAOC Dynamics |
Poster Session 2 (1:55 – 2:40 PM)
| Presenter | High School | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Shaivi Pandya | South Brunswick HS | The Current State of Personalized Cancer Vaccines and the Promise for the Future |
| Aadhya Patel | Wardlaw-Hartridge | Isolation of Recombinant GFP |
| Stephanie Chan, Zhiqi Li, Tami Huang | Midwood HS | To what extent does color congruency influence consumers’ purchase intention toward products? |
| Arthur Park | Leonia HS | Linear Algebra – Method of Regularized Stokeslets in 2d |
| Michael Bassily | Bergen County Academies | AI Drug Discovery Pipeline w/ Purdue Supercomputer |
| Karthik Annapareddy | Morris County School of Technology | Namib-Flow: A Beetle-Inspired Biomimetic Funnel for Passive Oil-Water Separation |
| Alicia Paulino | Leonia HS | 3-D Printed Scaffolding Joint Repair |
| Destiny Diaz | Bergen County Technical HS | Northeastern’s Summer Program: Engineering Innovation & Design |
| Swetha Kumar | Montgomery HS | Women in the Fusion Workforce: Impact and Future Projections |
| Ruhi Patel | Pompton Lakes HS | Sequence Analysis of Pathogenesis-Related protein in Landoltia punctata |
| Hania Sarfaraz & Xiulin Chen | Midwood HS | Analyzing the Food Preferences of Ilyanassa obsoleta |
| Constance Ng & Rita Li | Midwood HS | Effects of Cachectic Tumor-Derived Plasma on Inflammatory and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Gene Expression in Lung Cancer Cells |
| Noor Ul Huda | Midwood HS | The Durability of Empathy: Assessing Long-Term Attitude Change Following Age Simulation Training in Students |
| Megan Yam | Morris County School of Technology | Pomelo Skin-Inspired Insulated Shipping Container |
| Aisosa Okao | Cedar Creek HS | Walking After Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: An Introduction to Cognitive-Motor Interaction and Neurorehabilitation |
| Ray Chen | Union County Magnet HS | Digital Elders |