Baylor Sweeps Regional Science And Engineering Fair

  • Thursday, March 30, 2023
A group of Baylor students who were among the school's 32 award winners stuck around for the awards ceremony following the annual Chattanooga Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UTC.  Pictured above (front row and kneeling from left to right) are Abby Murchison, Sophia Baleeiro, Laken Coppinger, Shelby Cox, Pirm Dhararag, and Porter Stinson; (back row, left to right) are Davis Dowling, Mazie Mitchem, Hans Renlund, Jack Champion, Michael Xing, Jackson Rogers, Kaan Volkan, and Lars Renlund.
A group of Baylor students who were among the school's 32 award winners stuck around for the awards ceremony following the annual Chattanooga Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UTC. Pictured above (front row and kneeling from left to right) are Abby Murchison, Sophia Baleeiro, Laken Coppinger, Shelby Cox, Pirm Dhararag, and Porter Stinson; (back row, left to right) are Davis Dowling, Mazie Mitchem, Hans Renlund, Jack Champion, Michael Xing, Jackson Rogers, Kaan Volkan, and Lars Renlund.

Of the 32 Advanced Research and Thesis Research students participating in the Chattanooga Regional Science and Engineering Fair at UTC, 22 came home with first, second, or third place prizes earning Baylor School the Achievement Award for the most winners and the School Participation Award for the largest number of entries in the fair. 

"We are pleased that the high-quality entries by our students were recognized with an impressive 32 awards received," said Dr. Mary Loveless, director of Baylor Research and principal scientist for engineering research. 

“I continue to be amazed at the breadth and depth of the research offered at Baylor that is fueled by the students’ own curiosity, it enables us to be competitive in many different categories on the local and international levels,” added Dr. Antonio Herrera, lead scientist for molecular biology. 

Baylor senior Michael Xing qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair which occurs in Dallas, Texas May 13-19. Senior Kaan Volkan was selected as an alternate, followed by juniors Rachel Chen and Mazie Mitchem who were named ISEF observers. Six additional students received special awards. 

Also, don’t miss Baylor’s seventh annual Science and Engineering Symposium on Tuesday, May 9, from 5–7 p.m. in the Weeks science building. The event showcases an impressive collection of college-level work conducted by students enrolled in Baylor’s advanced scientific research program - everyone is welcome.

First Place Award Winners 
Sophie Baleeiro, senior – Microbiology 
Catherine Campbell, senior – Computational Biology and Bioinfomatics 
Jack Champion, junior – Physics and Astronomy 
Rachel Chen, junior – Animal Sciences 
Pirm Dhararag, senior – Cellular and Molecular Biology 
Davis Dowling, junior – Biomedical Engineering 
Mazie Mitchem, junior – Plant Sciences 
Abby Murchison, junior – Biomedical and Health Sciences 
Hans Renlund, junior – Embedded Systems 
Shriyaa Srihari, senior – Environmental Engineering 
Porter Stinson, senior – Software Systems 
Kaan Volkan, senior – Robotics and Intelligence Systems 
Michael Xing, senior – Engineering Mechanics 

Second Place Award Winners 
Laken Coppinger, junior – Microbiology 
Shelby Cox, senior – Earth and Environmental Science 
Addison Johnson, senior – Biomedical and Health Sciences 
Javier Garcia Nieto, senior – Computational Biology and Bioinfomatics 
Oliver Nimon, junior – Software Systems 
Jackson Rogers, senior – Robotics and Intelligence Systems 
Nick Short, senior – Behavioral and Social Sciences 
Luke Thompson, junior – Animal Science 

Third Place Award Winner 
Timothy George, senior – Cellular and Molecular Biology 

Special Awards 
NASA Earth System Science Project Award 
Jackson Champion, junior 

National Geographic Award 
Nora Redding, senior 

NOAA’s 2023 Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award 
Shriyaa Srihari, senior 

Regeneron Award 
Sophia Baleeiro, senior 

SIWI Stockholm Junior Water Prize 
Shelby Cox, senior 

Yale Science and Engineering Association Award 
Rachel Chen, junior 

International Science and Engineering Fair Recognition
Michael Xing, senior, finalist - Axial Compressor Design for High Compression Low Temperature Brayton Cycle Power Unit with Decoupled Hot and Cold Ends  

Kaan Volkan, senior, alternate - Exploring the Effects of Machine Learning Hyperparameters on a Dataset of Radiation Effects 

Rachel Chen, junior, observer - Transgenerational Effects of Atrazine on Caenorhabditis elegans 

Mazie Mitchem, junior, observer - Detection and Identification of Invasive and Native Bambuseae in North America Using Machine Learning and DNA Barcoding 

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