On February 11, 2025 Jesuit’s Science Fair team competed at the NWSE Science Fair with many students winning awards. 17 students competed at this state competition with many placing in the top three for their specific category.
In order to compete in the NWSE State Science Fair, the students had to qualify from the Gresham Barlow Science Fair. This year, 27 Jesuit students participated in the regional competition. Of those students, 17 qualified for the NWSE State Science Fair. In addition, there are two spots for students to automatically qualify for the International Science and Engineering Fair, ISEF, directly from the Gresham Barlow Science Fair. This year, both spots were taken by Jesuit juniors Nidhi Yadalam and Vrushab Karthik.
“This year was spectacular. Each year the team has steadily grown. It took a while in the beginning, and then it has really taken off,” said Dr. Shamieh, a Jesuit science teacher.
To compete in these science fairs, students research outside of school to create projects. Dr. Shamieh helps the students in a support role where the students can ask for advice or to bounce ideas off of her.
“Dr. Shamieh was a huge help throughout this journey. She gave me so much support in making the science fair happen at our school and was always there with encouragement. My parents were also incredibly supportive—they believed in me every step of the way and always reminded me to keep going, even when experiments didn’t work out or things didn’t go as planned,” said 2026 Nidhi Yadalam.
The students excelled at the NWSE Science Fair with 5 students placing first in different categories, 5 students placing second, 1 student placing third, and 1 student receiving Best of Fair for Physical Sciences.
Akash Ragam won Best in Fair for his self-navigating cane for the visually impaired. Akash was a part of a team in which he collaborated with his partner from Westview high school to create his project.
“I believe NWSE went really well. We were hoping to qualify for ISEF, the International Science and Engineering Fair, and we ended up qualifying and winning Best in Fair, so I was very happy about that,” said junior Akash Ragam.
Along with Akash Ragam, Nidhi Yadalam, Vrushab Karthik, Shriya Pai, and Sohan Govindaraju all qualified for the international competition.
These five students will represent Jesuit at the ISEF competition in Columbus Ohio from May 10-16. The students are all looking forward to showing off their projects and competing with around 1,800 other students from 70 different countries.
“I think it is a great opportunity to meet a lot of like minded people who are interested in research and changing the world in their field. I am really excited to see more of the revolutionary technologies that people have built, especially in the robotics and bioengineering categories,” said Vrushab Karthik.
Sohan Govindaraju expressed his enthusiasm and excitement in competing at the international level as well.
“One of my goals is to do the best I can in my category and try to win an award. I also want to meet people from different states and connect with them. I hope to collaborate and learn from my peers at ISEF,” said Sohan Govindaraju.
Full results below:
