Columbus, Ohio – The 75th Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a global stage for young scientific minds, concluded May 16, 2025, celebrating the achievements of high school students from around the world. this year’s competition saw participation from over 30 million students across 1,600 affiliated fairs in 70 countries, with the top 1,700 finalists vying for $9 million in awards.

Among these finalists were 10 students representing the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF), under the guidance of Sany Zakharia, a GSDSEF board member, treasurer, and judging captain. the San Diego delegation distinguished themselves by securing a total of seven awards, including a 2nd place, a 3rd place, and two 4th place finishes, amassing $46,800 in prize money.

Detailed Results of San Diego Participants

• behavioral and Social Sciences:
  • Hannah Im & Nupur Bhalla (Del Norte High School): “Optimizing Academic Burnout Mitigation: Statistical Modeling of Emotional Intelligence as a Protective Factor in Adolescents” – ISEF Finalist
• Biomedical and Health Sciences:
  • Saanvi Dogra (Del Norte High School): “Uncovering Molecular Mechanisms for treatment of Congenital Heart Defects through High-Content Genetic Perturbation Screens” – Grand Award: Fourth Award of $600
  • Anirudh Kalyanaraman (Mt. Carmel High School): “A Novel Treatment Approach to Mitigate Adverse Cardiovascular Effects of Burn pit Exposure” – ISEF Finalist
  • Lilian Zeng (Del Norte High School): “Identifying Bacteriophages, Nature’s Own Secret Weapon Against Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, for achromobacter Treatment” – ISEF Finalist
• Biomedical Engineering:
  • Kayley Xu (The Bishop’s School): “Wearable Stethoscope Array for Cardiopulmonary Sound Localization and Interference Suppression Using Beamforming”
    • Grand Award: Second Award of $2,400
    • Special Award: Society for Science Alumni Award of $5,000
• Computational Biology and Bioinformatics:
  • Tarik Oguz (Del Norte High School): “small changes, big Impact: miRNAs in Lung Cancer Detection” – Grand Award: Fourth Award of $600
• Physics and Astronomy:
  • Joe Smith (Stanford Online High School): “Lost in the stars: Chemical Tagging of the Magellanic Clouds and Accreted Populations” – Grand Award: Third Award of $1,200
• Plant Sciences:
  • Anna Luo (Canyon Crest Academy): “Allelopathic effects of Cynara cardunculus on Native Coastal Sage Scrub Species” – Special Award: The New American University ISEF Scholarship of $32,000
• robotics and Intelligent Machines:
  • Ryan Rezaei (Canyon Crest Academy): “Symmetry-Preserving Variational Autoencoder and Latent Space Rectified Flow Diffusion for Accelerated Materials Discovery With Geometric Graph Neural Networks and Integrated Property network Multi-Layer perceptron” – special Award: Midjourney of $5,000

For a comprehensive list of results and project showcases, visit the official ISEF website.

The Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF): A Legacy of STEM Inspiration

As its inception in 1955, the Greater San Diego science and Engineering Fair (GSDSEF) has been a cornerstone in fostering scientific curiosity and innovation among students in san Diego and Imperial Counties. The fair serves as a platform for students to engage in self-reliant research, develop innovative solutions, and present their findings to professionals in various STEM fields.

Each year, the GSDSEF brings together approximately 800 middle and high school students, supported by over 400 judges and 60 professional societies and organizations. The fair awards $40,000 in prizes, recognizing outstanding achievements in STEM.

The GSDSEF champions creativity and innovation, celebrating students’ STEM accomplishments and highlighting their potential to impact the world. Student projects frequently enough involve cutting-edge research, from discovering disease cures to developing new vaccines and applying AI in medical diagnoses.

the GSDSEF fosters creativity and innovation through inquiry, celebrates students’ STEM achievements, and showcases how young minds can make an impact in the present and future.

Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair

The GSDSEF operates as a 501(c)(3) institution, relying entirely on unpaid volunteers. To learn more, visit gsdsef.org and follow them on linkedin and instagram.