Science Fair
I have participated in science fair ever since I was in the 3rd grade. What I love about science is fair is being able to learn new concepts and ideas through hands-on experiences by conducting experiments.
7th Grade Project: My science fair project was measuring the height and the speed of tsunami waves that I simulated. I simulated this by filling an aquarium with water and dropping objects to trigger the waves. I observed how different volume and shape of the object dropped can affect the wave speed and height. My conclusions were that the speed of the wave depends on the shape of the object dropped but not the volume of the object. I also concluded that the maximum height of the wave decreased for flatter objects and for cylindrical objects. Something else that I concluded was that the speed of the wave increased for all objects.
8th Grade Project: My science fair project was looking at how we can harvest solar energy and body heat using thermoelectric generators. I did this by using hot and cold water as my heat sources to produce a voltage using the thermoelectric generator. I was able to produce 527 millivolts when the hot water was at a temperature of 148 Fahrenheit and the cold water was at a temperature of 32 Fahrenheit. I later experimented how much voltage I could produce using my own body heat. At a palm temperature of 92 Fahrenheit, I produced 36.1 millivolts. For my future work, I would like to implement the electricity that I am producing for real world applications. I would like to see how I could build a setup to our body heat and thermoelectric generators to power our wearable devices and sensors such as Apple Watches and Fitbits.
9th Grade Project:When I went to Bangalore, India and visited my grandparent’s home over summer break we experienced a lot of power outages which inconvenienced us in our phone and laptop use when we needed these devices the most. On the other hand, we had abundant access to hot water because of an overhead water tank that was heated by the sun in the tropical climate of India. This made me initially think about how we could harvest thermal energy and convert it to electricity. As I started researching this concept I ran into the idea of thermoelectric generators, also known as TEGs, that is able to harvest thermal energy and convert it to electricity through the Seebeck Effect. After that, I completed multiple experiments of seeing how temperature differences between hot and cold-water sources correlated with the amount of power I could produce. Through my different experiments I was able to conclude that the higher the temperature difference the higher the power you can produce. I also realized that it is possible to increase the current and voltage by connecting many TEGs in series and parallels. Using the knowledge, I have gained on thermoelectric generators I would like to expand my research and work on applying the electricity that I am generating using wastage heat. In the future, I would like to work on creating a system of being able to charge household devices using TEGs. This system could potentially help people in times of crisis where they do not have direct access to electricity, such as the past hurricanes we have witnessed. I also presented this topic at the TEDxYouth Dayton 2018 event.
This is my science fair board. I have finished judging at our school's science fair. You can see the relieved look on my face!
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This is my 2017 science fair board at the Montgomery County Science Fair.
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10th Grade Project: Eight years ago was my first experience with the toll intense heat can take on the body. My family went to the Dayton Air Show and the outdoor temperature was over 100F. I remember feeling dizzy and dehydrated throughout the event. In fact, by the end of the event, the entire venue had run out of water. Looking at this problem at a national scale, we can see that 1,000s of people from children to senior citizens are experiencing minor symptoms to fatal effects of extreme heat. I was motivated to create a non-invasive wearable device to detect heat strokes. When patients experience heat strokes, a process called vasodilation (increase in vein diameter) occurs in the body. Using household materials, I conducted experiments to simulate vasodilation. I analyzed the relationship between the flow rate of blood and the amount of heat that was dissipated by the liquid. I then used a piezoelectric sensor, which converts molecular stress into electricity, to detect vasodilation and power a potential warning systems for patients.
11th Grade Project: One day, I heard a story about a child who had gotten into a car crash and had suffered subdural hemorrhage as a result. By the time the family could get the child to the hospital, five hours had passed and the situation became fatal. Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) affect 100,000s of people. Injuries can range from a minor concussion to becoming fatal. A critical issue when dealing with TBI is that it can appear as other injuries causing mistreatment. One of the main symptoms of TBI is increased intracranial pressure (ICP). Cerebral autoregulation is another biological process that ensures steady blood flow to the brain. During intact autoregulation, minute changes are made to the cerebral blood flow. During impaired autoregulation, the process loses control and is unable to regulate the blood flow. I wanted to investigate how I could design a wearable device to non-invasively monitor ICP by detecting cerebral autoregulation. I first created a realistic simulation to measure changes in autoregulation. I used a similar process as my 10th-grade project to measure temperature changes due to varied blood-flow rate. I used a thermistor and thermocouple to measure the changes. As a result of temperature differences, the thermistor produces electrical resistance. I used the electrical resistance to power a warning system.
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I was named as a 2020 Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair Finalist for this research.
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