Niles West High School is known for many achievements in academics, sports, theater, and arts, however, on Saturday, May 14th, Niles West made history again in the Illinois Junior Academy of Science State Science Fair.
As a whole, our students won 60+ individual awards in this science fair. Their hard work is paying off in many ways as these students are being recognized for their talent and accomplishments.
“Most of the kids that go to science fair are part of either the STEM program or Math Modeling. They’re independent research classes so we all do most of our own work. The projects we take to these competitions are projects we have been working on all year long; some have been worked on for multiple years,” Senior Zamaan Bagban said, “for my project specifically, we spent a lot of time in the computer lab doing research to get background information on our topic. We started with a general problem (unmanned ariel vehicles), and then, narrowed it down to something specific (Wake Turbulence Avoidance Algorithm,) ” he added.
The science fair club has eight sponsors who work with the participating students day in and day out while supporting them throughout their journey. The sponsors include Ruth Gleicher, Tim Miller, Parin Patel, Greg Ruber, Joe Serpico, Julieann Villa, Brittany Wu, and Rachael Zolper.
“I’m very pleased with how well the students did at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science (IJAS) state competition. The course I teach, Mathematical Modeling and Research, requires a lot of independent work, and I think my students would acknowledge that the more they put into their project, the more they learned,” one of eight Science Fair Sponsors Mr. Tim Miller said. “I am particularly happy for Zamaan Bagban. He put a lot of thought and work into his project, and he won the Best in Category Award in Aerospace. Zamaan’s project involved developing an algorithm for Unmanned Aircraft Systems to avoid the turbulence created by larger, typically commercial, airplanes. His ideas are novel and cutting-edge, and he has been asked by a professor from Northwestern to jointly write a research paper to be considered for publication,” he finished.
At this years competition, there were awards received in multiple different categories. We were recognized for paper session awards, poster session awards, special awards, non-special awards, and best in category.
The awards in each of the following categories are listed below:
Paper Session Awards:
Gold – Osama Esmail, Aimen Lateef, Ameera Lodhi, Mrugami Mahadik , Ashly Pinarkyil, and Irein Thomas.
Silver – John Saba
Poster Session Awards:
Gold – Ayman Ali, Zamaan Bagban, Dareen Chuy, Valerie Chuy, Nicole Cwiok, Myra Esmail, Osama Esmail, Rachel Ferrigno, Anam Furrukh, Vinit Gheewala, Nicholas Ieremciuc, Maryam Khalid, Fillip Komornik, Aisha Kothawala, Michael Leon, Mrugami Mahadik, Ashly Pinarkyil, Michael Rohn, Parth Shah, Vijay Shah, Vraj Shroff, Nicholas Stochmal, Edward Thai, Irein Thomas, Elaine Tran, and Dana Yim
Silver – Danish Arsalan, Elizabete Dudorane, Emily Duong, Alex Huynh, Jun Lee, Isaac Moldofsky, Kunj Patel, and Sana Shariff.
Special Awards:
Illinois Water and Environment Association “Clean Water Award” – Edward Thai
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency – Irein Thomas
John Takeda Pharmaceutical Award – Aisha Kothawala, Emily Duong
Health Science Learning Exchange – Elizabete Dudorane, Dareen Chuy, Aishah Kothawala, Anam Furrukh, Alex Huynh
Jay Hoffman Award. Natural Disaster Recovery – Mrugami Mahadik, Osama Esmail
Dr. Lyell J. Thomas Memorial Award: Niles West High School
Non-Special Awards:
Top 10 Papers Senior Division: Ameera Lodhi, Irein Thomas
Best in Category:
Aerospace – Zamann Bagban
Cell and Molecular Biology – Vraj Shroff
Chemistry – Vjay Shah
Computer Science – Michael Leon
Engineering – Elaine Tran
Environmental Science – Nicholas Ieremcuic
Health Science – Syeda Quadri
Material Science – Osama Esmail
Microbiology – Parth Shah
Zoology – Irein Thomas, Nicole Cwiok
These students have all been working all year long on their projects and most have had ideas about what they wanted to do since the summer.
“It’s not an easy work load, but thankfully we have amazing sponsors pushing us and working with us to stay on the right track. It feels absolutely incredible to win because your hard work truly does pay off and it’s appreciated by people actually working and studying in your field of interest,” Senior Ashly Pinarkyl said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life and I wouldn’t trade these last four years for anything.”
