Congratulations to the students who competed in the 2022 Northwest Georgia Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NWGARSEF) on Feb. 4 and 5. Students from elementary school through high school competed virtually in this year’s fair. “We had more than double the number of participants this year, which was exciting,” said Aliya Davenport, associate professor of biology and co-director for NWGARSEF. “The enthusiasm and quality of projects from this year’s participants were just outstanding. They all deserve congratulations for the hard work they put into their projects.”
To participate, students submitted videos about their project, no longer than 10 minutes in length, for judging. Projects had to be in one of 22 categories in the areas of life sciences; medicine and health; math, computer, and engineering; earth, energy, and environment; or physical sciences.
Winners for each division:
Elementary Division
1st place – Taylor Saulinskas, Knox Stem Academy
2nd place – Cole Kongere, Clark Creek Elementary STEM Academy
3rd place – Ananya Das, Clark Creek Elementary STEM Academy
Junior Division
1st place – Rohan Pandya, E.T. Booth Middle School
2nd place (tie) – Rhea Menon & Saanvi Bodhireddy, DeSana Middle School
2nd place (tie) – Spence Pack, The King’s Academy
2nd place (tie) – Sophie Naliwajka, E.T. Booth Middle School
3rd place (tie) – Ryvaan Das, Riverwatch Middle School
3rd place (tie) – Kylie Fluhart, E.T. Booth Middle School
3rd place (tie) – Pradhyumna Vasishta, E.T. Booth Middle School
Senior Division
1st place – Prajwal Saokar, Richard Jiang, and Sahil Sood, Lambert High School
2nd place – Edgar Robitaille, Vineeth Sendilraj, and Aditya Prabhakar, Lambert High School
3rd place – Mokshith Mannuru, South Forsyth High School
The NWGARSEF is open to students in public, private, and home schools from any of the 17 counties in northwest Georgia (Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Dade, Dawson, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Gordon, Lumpkin, Murray, Pickens, Union, Walker and Whitfield).
This year was the first year the fair was open to elementary students in addition to middle school and high school students. Selected middle school and high school projects from the NWGARSEF will be chosen to compete at the Georgia Science and Engineering Fair, hosted at the University of Georgia in Athens. Although elementary students cannot compete at the state level, Reinhardt was excited to offer this experience to them at the regional fair.
“We look forward to seeing all of these students and more here in 2023 when Reinhardt hosts NWGARSEF in person! After two years of virtual competition, we will finally be able to see the projects and hear the presentations in person,” said Keith Ray, instructor of biology at Reinhardt and co-director for NWGARSEF. “It will also provide students with meaningful networking opportunities and showcase our university as a wonderful venue for the fair.”
Now is the time for teachers and students to start planning for next year. We invite teachers who are interested in this opportunity for their students to reach out to us with any questions they may have about fair. We are excited about the 2023 fair and want as many students in our 17-county area to be a part of it as possible.”
For a complete list of the winners and their project titles, including honorable mentions, visit https://www.reinhardt.edu/nwgarsef/.
