When Dr. Ashley Posey discusses the rigors of McCallie’s after-school Science Research Projects program, she doesn’t mince words about the challenges her students will face.
“The journey they embark upon is not for the faint of heart, and unless you are a scientist, not everyone can fathom the trials they endure,” she wrote in an email last week. “It is easy to win, but their character shows in failing and coming back stronger."
She may be a witness to their failings, but at the recent Chattanooga Regional Science and Engineering Fair the rest of the science community saw how much her students win and win big in such competitions.
Just as a group of McCallie history students crushed the competition in the National History Day regional competition with six first places in seven possible categories a little over a week ago, Dr. Posey’s McCallie science students similarly rolled to victory in the Science and Engineering Fair, also winning six first places.
Included in those victories was sophomore day student Joshua Kim, who not only took first in Biomedical and Health Sciences (largest submission) but also won the Yale Science and Engineering for Most Outstanding Exhibit in STEM. For all of this, he was named the Grand Champion, which will send him on to Los Angeles to compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair later this year.
Other first-place award winners included Nishanth Basava, Akhil and Nikhil Giddaluri, Anthony Xian, Chenlin (Forrest) Chai and Kevin Yang also won firsts in the Chattanooga competition, with Yun (Everett) Guo winning a second and Benjamin Jeong being recognized as a participant.
"It’s truly an honor to have been able to represent McCallie in this way," said Kim, whose entry was titled “Accelerating Breast Cancer Diagnosis: Leveraging Machine Learning to Accurately Predict Breast Cancer Presence and Stage.”
“But I don’t necessarily view this solely as my award, but also one for McCallie, and it gives me great pleasure to bring this honor to the school. I’m glad for the support I’ve received from family, teachers, and friends and the opportunity to learn alongside my fellow students. I’m blessed to have these people around me who want to learn and help me think. They have truly set me up for this honor, and I am humbled and grateful to have received it.”
Kim began working on the expansive project last summer, long before school began in September. On a typical school day, he would work an average of three hours doing research. He worked through school holidays and on weekends to, in his words, “Develop my project, conduct background research, reach out to healthcare professionals, and work on my code.”
If that’s not impressive enough, in the middle of the project he had to shift from a lab-based study to a computer-generated one because of supply-chain problems and lab certification issues.
“Joshua had numerous setbacks, from difficulties in obtaining cell lines to unsuccessful presentations,” Dr. Posey said. “However the tenacity he demonstrated in the face of challenges is a skill that extends beyond the lab, shaping him into a resilient and adaptable young man ready to tackle the complexities of life.”
She similarly praised her other winners, noting: “In the face of challenges, they not only persevere but return for more with an undeterred spirit. I take pride not just in their awards but in the growth of their character.”
The mere titles of the students’ Science Fair awards beyond those won by Kim tell much about why they won.
Nishanth Basava won a first in the Translational Medical Science and Regeneron Biomedical Science Award for his project “Revolutionizing Personalized Cancer Vaccines with NEO: Novel Epitope Optimization Using an Aggregated Feed Forward and Recurring Neural Network with LSTM Architecture.”
Brothers Akhil and Nikhil Giddaluri grabbed 1st in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Award for In-vitro Biology for their work “Investigating the Effects of Fluoranthene on Lung Cells: An Eye Opening Insight into the Potential Hazards of Wildfires.”
Anthony Xian won the Behavioral and Social Science Award from the American Psychological Association for Achievement in Research in Psychological Science for his work “Using Mobile EEG to Analyze the Prolonged Effects of Binaural Beats While Studying.”
Chenlin (Forrest) Chai won his first in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics for his project “Enhancing Drug Interaction Prediction. Novel Dual Objective Framework and Self Attention in Message Passing Neural Networks.”
Kevin Yang won first in Robotics and Intelligent Machines for his project “Soft Prosthetic Robot Hand and Arm System with Inflated Airbags.”
Yun (Everett) Guo took a second for his Systems Software project “Modeling Renewable Energy Sources Integrated Power Grid Node Importance Based on Integral Value Page Rank Algorithm.”
Benjamin Jeong was also recognized for his work in the Cellular and Molecular Biology category for his project “Cytotoxic Effect of Weld Particulate Matter on Human Cell Lines.”
All this success for the Science Research Projects program comes a year after Benjamin Yang ‘23 was not only recognized by the Junior Academy of Science in Washington, D.C., for his multi-year research project “The Inflammatory Impact of Microplastics on Human Lung Cells,” but also won $2,000 checks for both himself and McCallie from the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Not surprisingly, Yang is now a freshman at Caltech, the first McCallie student to be admitted to that school in 20 years.
Kim said he texted Yang 30 minutes after winning his award and Yang was so proud of him.
Said Kim of Yang’s legacy: “I see him as a McCallie legend.”
As for his own legacy heading into the international competition in LA, Kim says, “I'm definitely really stoked and I’m really looking forward to ISEF this May. I hope to continue working hard at my research and represent McCallie well.”
Then Kim added one last thought in a weekend email: “My overall approach to science research, and life as a whole, is that failure is not an end but a guide to the next breakthrough.”
Perhaps when it comes to McCallie Science Research Projects legends, it takes one to know one.
Learn more about the school's Scientific Research program in this McCallie Magazine article.