Mountlake Terrace High School’s gymnasium was packed with 276 Snohomish and King County students last weekend for the Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering (CSRSE) Fair.

Assisted by friends and family, students set up 235 projects for review by 215 judges for 10 categories:

– Behavioral and Social Sciences

– Biomedical Science and Engineering

– Life Sciences

– Micro and Molecular Biological Science

– Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

– Environmental Engineering and Environmental Science

– Chemistry, Materials Science and Energy

– Applied Physics, Math and Mechanical Engineering

– Robotics and Emerging Technology

– Embedded Systems and Software

One of the competitors was Mountlake Terrace High School senior Max Everitt. He developed a device that creates closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing. A microphone picks up the speech, which is then processed by a specially programmed Raspberry Pi microcomputer.

Everitt said the microcomputer will then send a text scroll across a screen in the user’s field of vision. He said his interest in augmented reality inspired his creation.

Everitt previously designed a device that helps the vision-impaired sense objects through vibration and has adapted it for the deaf to sense the direction of sounds.

Peter W. of Seattle’s Lincoln High School, who requested that his last name be withheld, was among the few freshmen at the fair. His project uses AI to detect vehicle accidents through traffic monitors in real time and alert authorities of a crash.

Peter said he wanted to downplay the AI aspect of his project, feeling that it has become too much of a buzzword that has created misconceptions. He is not using AI to solve issues with predicted forecasts but to learn how to identify one.

Peter explained that the multiple neural pathways are designed for the AI to find the edges of objects, rates of speed and deceleration and sudden direction changes, as seen in accidents. When an accident is detected, emergency services are contacted immediately.

There were 53 special awards, 40 category awards and five grand champions.

Yuti Purohit of Interlake Senior High School was declared the Grand Champion ISEF Finalist with Distinction for “Enhancing Cloud Seeding Efficiency: Augmentation of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Hygroscopicity and Identification of Optimal Cloud Targets.”

Brian Zhu of Bellevue High School received Grand Champion, ISEF Finalist for “Unraveling Molecular Carcinogenicity through Computational Insights.”

Aditya Sengupta of the Overlake School’s “ForeCAT: Advancing Clear Air Turbulence Prediction for Aviation Safety with Atmospheric Physics-Informed Neural Networks and Spatiotemporal Weather Data” was also given the Grand Champion, ISEF Finalist ranking.

Grand Champion, ISEF Finalist Srishti Boral of Eastlake High School won for “Design of Novel Small-Molecule Activators Targeting the AtlA Autolysin in Staphylococcus aureus: A Computational Approach to Combat Antibiotic Resistance Through Internal Cell Death Mechanisms.”

Interlake High School’s Anusha Arora was awarded Grand Champion, ISEF Finalist for “SmartStrings: A Novel Low-Cost Multimodal System for Intelligent Violin Pedagogy with Real-time Corrective and Sensory Feedback through Artificial Intelligence.”

The Yale Science and Engineering Association awarded Kate Allender the Teacher of the Year Award.

The entire list of contestant placements can be seen here.