Delaware Valley Science Fair
2021

Founded in 1949, The Delaware Valley Science Fairs, Inc. (DVSF), is a non-profit organization sponsored by companies, foundations, universities, and individual donors in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas within Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. DVSF is one of the oldest science fairs in the nation and has always promoted the philosophy that students learn science by doing science. We research teachers here at HTHS embrace that same philosophy. In the research process, students learn how to think and develop critical problem-solving skills that they will utilize in in the lab here at High Tech, in college, and later in their careers. The mission of DVSF is to connect hard working and inventive young minds with professionals in their fields. During the fair the competitors are interviewed by experts in their field as their research is evaluated. The students who compete at DVSF have to opportunity to learn from top research scientists and engineers, gain insight into new directions for their research, and, in some cases, make connections with people who could help bring a potential product to market. Students compete for scholarships, monetary prizes, and a chance to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

Each year, 900 to 1,000 students in grades 6 through 12 from Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware compete in the Delaware Valley Science Fair (DVSF). Our students enter projects that address a novel research question or engineering solution. In participating in this rigorous research competition, they make new discoveries that could change their lives forever as they compete for the nearly $6 million in scholarship and prize money awarded at DVSF. The gold medal winners then represent DVSF as they travel to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) competition in May to compete for more than $5 million in scholarships and awards.

This year's Delaware Valley Science Fair was a virtual event and project submissions from JSSF for the top three finishers in each category were advanced to DVSF to be reviewed by their judging panel. There were special awards given by sponsoring corporations and institutions and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place was awarded in each category. Then, the first place finishers in each grade level competed for the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes that allow them to advance to Regeneron's ISEF.

Delaware Valley Category Awards (Full List) - *HTHS students highlighted
Delaware Valley Special Awards (Full List) - *HTHS students highlighted

Full Student Participants List
*All participants advanced from JSSF Competition. Students listed alphabetically below.

  • Siddharth Avhad - "The Effect of Different Growing Mediums on the Growth of Mentha Spicata"

  • Abhilash Bodala - "The Effect of Guitar String Company on the Corrosion and Oxidation of Electric Guitar Strings"

  • Albert Dong - "The Effect of Color Contrast on Machine Learning Image Recognition"

  • Andrew Gerchak - "The Effect of Guitar Pedals Modeling the TS808 on the Midrange of a Guitar Signal"

  • Jue Gong - "The Study of the Effect of Topspin on the Trajectory of a New Tennis Ball"

  • Katherine Fang - "Effects of Recombinant SARS-COV-2 S Protein on Cell Proliferation and Apoptosis Induction"

  • Apollo Lee - "Antineoplasticity of Z. officinale Phytochemicals as a Function of S. cerevisiae Proliferation"

  • Daniel Lin - "Investigate and Improve the Therapeutic Window of an Organic Fungal Treatment"

  • Kylie Lin - "The Effect of Dish Detergents on Perilla frutescens var. crispa Leaf Area"

  • Spencer Lyudovyk - "A Comparison of Different Types of Foam for Reducing Sound Level"

  • Yuvna Musuku - "L-Tryptophan As a Novel Alternative Biostimulant for Soybean Seedling Growth"

  • Advait Sepuri - "The Effect of Red, Blue, and White Light on Dugesia tigrina Regeneration"

  • Sidharth Srivastava - "A Novel Vertical Ground Reaction Force Based Detection System for Parkinson's Disease"

  • John Tomasello - "The Effect of Scale on the Flight Time of a Paper Aircraft"

  • Arya Tschand - "Implementation of Novel Semi-Supervised Machine Learning Model into Autonomous Irrigation Network Optimized for Power Self-Sufficiency"

  • Andrew Wang - "The Effect of Different Conductivity Metals on Cellphone Wifi Connection Speed"

  • Ryan Wang - "The Effect of Medium on Reading Speed"

  • Audrey Yan - "Using Food Waste as Fuel Source in Microbial Fuel Cells"

Category and Special Award Winners

  • Arya Tschand

      • Gold Medal 12th Grade Division - Advanced to Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF)

      • 1st Place - Engineering Category - 12th Grade Fair

      • Special Award - Office of Naval Research

  • Jue Gong

      • Silver Medal 10th Grade Division - Advanced to Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF)

      • 1st Place - Physics Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Daniel Lin

      • 1st Place - Chemistry Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Yuvna Musuku

      • 2nd Place - Botany Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Siddharth Avhad

      • 3rd Place - Botany Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Spencer Lyudovyk

      • 3rd Place - Engineering Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Albert Dong

      • Honorable Mention - Computer Science Category - 10th Grade Fair

  • Sidharth Srivastava

      • Honorable Mention - Engineering Category - 11th Grade Fair

  • Andrew Wang

      • Honorable Mention - Physics Category - 10th Grade Fair

Full Awards Ceremony Video