文/ Tiffany Whitfield

4月13日，新一代崭露头角的科学家和工程师挤满了Ted Constant召集中心的Chartway Arena, for the 2024 Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair (VSSEF). 最靠谱的网赌软件的科学学院和巴顿工程学院主办了今年的颁奖典礼. 来自弗吉尼亚联邦的220多名学生展示了他们的项目，展示了他们在科学方面的才能, 技术, 工程, 和数学(STEM).

Co-sponsors for the VSSEF include Leidos and American Electric Power Foundation.

220名VSSEF高中选手在他们的项目上工作了几个月，并赢得了来自弗吉尼亚州各地的当地和11个地区的比赛，有机会面对面. 学生们从事的广泛的STEM项目是基于个人经历和他们天生的好奇心来探索更深层次的研究.

High school competitors arrived at 7:30 a.m., to compete in category and special awards judging. There were 157 projects and 47 team projects that took center court at the Chartway Arena. 一排排的项目排列在中央球场，学生们可以互动，看到他们的同龄人竞争对手付出的努力.

Project categories included: animal sciences, 化学, 机器人, 生物医学, 物理, 环境科学, 软件, material science and microbiology, 仅举几个例子. Every student showed off their analytical, 研究, 设计, and presentation skills to judges in this highly competitive fair.

Saumik Das, 来自伦敦学院, 谈到, 维吉尼亚参加了行为和社会科学类的竞赛，他的项目灵感来自于他自己的早产. “我的项目都是关于减轻早产缺陷的，这是我最关心的，因为我在26周时就早产了. 我个人经历了语言治疗和物理治疗，我的项目本质上是寻找一种负担得起的药物来减轻早产缺陷，改善新生儿的互动和运动.”

三名选手组成的队伍, 伊莎贝尔胡佛, Lauren Kim and Zainab Soofi from the Governor’s School at 创新 Park in Manassas City, Virginia worked for months on their novel 研究 project. “我们正在发现噪音污染对盐水虾的行为和发育的影响,金说。. “在它们的孵化期间，我们用不同的间隔编码振动机，以模拟它们在现实世界中可能接触到的振动,胡佛说. The team was able take data collection on their movements, measurements, and survival rate. “最重要的是，当它们暴露在这种噪音污染中时，它们的移动速度要快得多, 这可能会对生态系统产生非常严重的影响，因为它们是许多不同捕食者的巨大猎物来源，而捕食者无法预测猎物的去向,苏菲说。.   

Duo team Tanish Singh and Abhinav Tadinada from Mills E. Godwin High School in Richmond, Virginia competed in the 物理 category. “We created a novel space navigation device that’s internally housed within the spacecraft; and it uses the properties of quantum mechanics within machine learning and from that we can detect the exact location of a spacecraft and it serves as a GPS system for space exploration,辛格说。. “We’ve been working on this for a little more than a year,” said Tadinada.

After five hours of judging and deliberations, 17 students with 9 individual and 3 team projects were left on the arena floor, and grand prize judging then commenced.

Assembling an event of this magnitude was a massive team effort. 加布里埃尔因特网, Operations Manager and Assistant to the Dean of 理学院, served as the VSSEF fair director. 贾斯汀•梅森, director of the Michael and Kimthanh Lê Planetarium was the VSSEF assistant fair director.

Franke was elated for the competition. “It was very exciting to view the student’s original, innovative projects many of which addressed real-world problems. ODU VSSEF很高兴为年轻科学家提供一个展示他们工作的物理空间, and to give the students a chance to be a part of a community of scientists and engineers. 在今年的VSSEF中，我最喜欢的部分是听到学生们在组别评审结束后离开舞台时的讨论. Their conversations seemed to be entirely about their interactions with the judges, 听到他们在讨论评委的问题和评论时的兴奋，真是太棒了.”

Mason was thrilled to see the students fully engaged in the competition. “A science fair epitomizes the boundless potential of student curiosity and innovation. Each project a testament to the power of hands-on learning and scientific exploration. 在过去的三年里，ODU很荣幸地主办了弗吉尼亚州科学与工程博览会. 从2022年的虚拟博览会开始, to an in-person fair in ‘23 and ’24, it’s the work of countless ODU faculty, 工作人员, and students that have made this event a tremendous success year after year."

其他重要的团队成员包括担任科学审查委员会主席的ODU副院长Lesley Greene和担任法官协调员的ODU化学讲师Emily Hardy.

志愿奉献时间的评委包括ODU教员、研究生、校友和社区合作伙伴. 在2024年的VSSEF上，高中选手们展示的一系列项目给评委带来了挑战.

The judges came from all over the Commonwealth of Virginia. Local professionals who had the difficult task of judging included employees of NASA, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, 诺福克植物园, 和第一登陆州立公园. There were also faculty and graduate students from Hampton University, 弗吉尼亚理工大学, 威廉学院 & Mary, and Virginia Commonwealth University. The majority of the judges were ODU faculty and graduate students. 

比赛期间, 为了让这些才华横溢的学生更多地了解ODU，在查特威体育馆的大厅里举行了一场外联会. 教师 from various offices and departments, along with student organizations, 在查特威体育馆的大厅里，他们向学生和家长讲述了君主学校的机遇之旅.

下午3:30.m., the VSSEF awards ceremony began. 在颁奖典礼上，VSSEF副总裁兼罗阿诺克山谷州长科技学院院长Mark Levy对学生们表示欢迎. 然后WHRV的直播人才和ODU校友道格·博因顿担任颁奖典礼的主持人.

Boynton congratulated all the competitors and said, “It’s fantastic to have every one of you here in Norfolk this afternoon. Wow you all have worked so hard to get here.”

看到 ODU's 理学院 Flickr 观看2024年VSSEF竞赛非常活跃的一天的全套照片，并看到获胜者和一系列项目.

赢家

The list of 12 category winners is below. 看到 full list of winners from the 2024 VSSEF along with special award winners.

Animal, Behavioral, and Social Sciences

  • 首先: 伊莎贝尔胡佛, Lauren Kim, and Zainab Soofi  
  • Title: The Effect of Anthropogenic Vibrations on the Behaviors and Development of Artemia salina

Behavioral and Social Sciences and Cellular & 分子生物学

  • 首先: Saumik Das
  • Title: koumine对创伤性损伤诱导的黑腹果蝇后代模型(模拟早产效应)社会互动和运动的影响

生物医学 Sciences, 生物医学 Engineering & 医学翻译

  • 首先:安娜·莫汉蒂
  • Title卷积神经网络预测HIV-1神经感染多聚体相互作用

Cell, Molecular and Computational Biology & 生物化学

  • 首先Roger Zhu 
  • Title: In Vivo Nanoscopic Elucidation of Neuromodulatory Transmission

化学

  • 首先:阿什丽塔·甘地
  • Title用植物源性生物化合物槲皮素对抗小儿急性淋巴细胞白血病 & 长春新碱

Earth and Environmental Sciences

  • 首先:韦斯利·康
  • Title: A Novel Mathematical Model To Predict Wastewater Induced Earthquakes

工程技术 & 可持续设计

  • 首先: Chetana Gunawardhana
  • Title: HypeFL: Submersible Aerial Vehicle Design Study

材料科学

  • 首先瓦莱里娅·诺沃娅
  • Title: Optimizing Graphitic Carbon Nitride to Create a Safe, 有效的, and Economic form of Hydrogen Storage

微生物学

  • 首先加布里埃拉·孔德  
  • Title: Optimal Sound Frequencies for Targeted E. coli Biofilm Eradication on Medical Devices

物理、数学和天文学

  • 首先: Tanish Singh and Abhinav Tadinada  
  • Title基于量子比特编码和Bloch球映射的量子机器学习在脉冲星分类中的新应用

植物科学

  • 首先约瑟芬·伊顿
  • Title: 有效的ness of Glycine max on Microplastic Removal from Soil

Robotics, Software and Embedded Systems

  • 首先: Anant Khandelwal, Sritan Motati and Siddhant Sood
  • Title: Diffusion-Based Conditional Mesh Synthesis for Efficient 3D Prototyping  

每位大奖获得者将获得参加国际比赛的全程免费旅行, Regeneron ISEF 2024, the world's largest pre-college STEM competition from May 11 to 17 in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

ODU has hosted the events since 2021 and VSSEF will be held at a new site for 2025.