The Home of Midwood Science Research

Out of 130 finalists, seven students from Midwood made the NYCSEF finals and showcased their projects at the Museum of Natural History. The finalists are Mahmoud Abouelkheir '17, Allan Nosov '17, Nomon Mohammad '17, Lilin Liu '17, Vivian Luu '17, Minna Zeldin '17, and Amna Aslam '17.

According to midwoodscience.org, NYCSEF, also called the New York City Science and Engineering Fair, is a yearly competition in which hundreds of students participate in a preliminary round at City College and a final round at the Museum of Natural History. Sponsored by the Department of Education and CUNY, NYCSEF allows students to learn about a field they're interested in and get a chance to become a recognized and accomplished person, which also stands out on a college application.

Mentors at Brooklyn College, City College and the Hospital for Special Surgery supervised the finalists. They did projects in different fields, such as biology, physics, and earth and environmental science and presented them to expert judges. The winners can get various awards, internships, scholarships, and cash prizes.

One of the top projects included "Intra-microcolony spatial positioning affects antibiotic susceptibility in Neisseria gonorrhoeae," by Mahmoud Abouelkheir. He was awarded the NYCSEF First Award and the Intel ISEF award, which are the highest awards of the competition. Abouelkheir expressed his excitement, as winning an award and competing with others is something he would never forget.

"NYCSEF was a different experience that other science fairs I've been to. I also participated in the first and second round," he said. "I did not think I was going to become a finalist. It was really cool that I had one of the top projects."

Nomon Mohammad received the NYCSEF Second Award and the ASM Materials Education Foundation Award for his engineering project on studying different ways to use electrolytes to optimize energy storage in batteries. Mohammad described his experience at NYCSEF and believed that winning the award was a symbol of the hard work and he and his lab put into the project.

Vivian Luu, Amna Aslam, Nomon Mohammad, Allan Nosov,
Mahmoud Abouelkeir, Minna Zeldin, Lilin Liu

"It was interesting to see other people's projects at the competition because it really represented their scientific exploration and their effort," he said. "I hope that the research program grows in the coming years because it's something that can change one's perspective on science."

Lilin Liu was one of the students to win the NYCSEF Third Award, but also won the Brooklyn Navy Yard Award for her project testing the effectiveness of x-ray fluorescence on lead contaminated vegetables.

"Winning an award is always beneficial. Not only does it make you feel good, but it's good for college too. I also received a paid internship because of this project – it's a good opportunity and can help me achieve more in the future," she said.

Allan Nosov, another student to receive the NYCSEF Second Award, did an earth and environmental science project called "Lapse rate analysis — model versus observations." Nosov felt honored to have competed with the other students and found the event to be enjoyable.

"Competing with the other students was fun because their projects were really exceptional. It was fun because I met new people from other schools and I think it was a good educational opportunity," he said.

The top 16 projects will continue on and represent New York City at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles, California during May 14–19. For more information on the finalists, visit nycsef.cuny.edu.

Written by Yumna Ahmed Qazi (Class of 2017).
Sara Omran (Class of 2019) and Shakila Islam (Class of 2018) also contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared in the April 2017 edition of Argus.

Students across New York City schools, private and public, were able to showcase their creativity and intelligence through their experiments in the yearly New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSWEF) preliminary round, which was under way on Sunday, March 5 in City College.

“This fair ultimately isn’t about winning. It’s that you know what your talking about and a project you worked hard on is heard,” said Angel Zou ’17.

Seven hornets were accepted to participate in the finals. Mahmoud Abouelkheir ’17 and Amna Aslam ’17 in the category microbiology, Lilin Liu ’17 and Allan Nosov ’17 in the category earth and environmental sciences, Vivian Luu ’17 in the category chemistry, Nomon Mohammad ’17 in the category engineering and Minna Zeldin ’17 in the category medicine and health science qualified. The finals will take place on Tuesday, March 28 at the museum of natural history. Then, those finalists will have the opportunity of competing in nationals located in Los Angeles.

“This is an amazing chance to showcase all the hard work students put in and the broad range of topics that science covers,” said Mahmoud Abouelkheir ’17. “everyone can learn something new from this fair.”

Some projects were printed out on large posters, while others were on tri-boards. Each experiment had an introduction (background research), a hypothesis, a data, an analysis of that data, and a conclusion.

This fair had a specific judging system. Each experiment was assigned 3 judges and they asked questions based on the experiment’s methodology. Student scientists weren’t allowed to move away from their project until they were evaluated by the judges.

Mahmoud’s project was titled Intra Microcolony Spatial Positioning Affects Antibiotic Susceptibility In Neisseria Gonorrhoeae. This complex project tested the physical properties of bacteria.

“The purpose of this kind of fair is to get students involved in taking part in something big,” said Minna Zeldin ’17, “the fair allows students to present information and discoveries that might turn into something much bigger in the future.”

Minna created an experiment that tried to prove that DNA strands can move around from cell to cell in search of a specific marker that is found on cancer cells.

Angel Zou ’17 partnered with Whitney Wong ’17 created an experiment that uses microscopic water dwelling organisms called tardigrade to see how they affect E. coli.

“One can’t become a scientist without acting first. This fair gives students the opportunity to work in labs and become mini scientists,” said Angel Zou ’17.

Many people came to observe the science fair. Md Hoque ’18 and his friends were astonished by all the different, elaborate experiments. Md mainly focused on the biology section because he is currently working on a project where he uses a fungi, a yeast, to clean tap water and get rid of the pharmaceutical drugs found in it. He is trying to find a way to insert human liver enzymes into yeast and have them metabolize the drugs inside New York tap water. The goal of this project is to cleanse the water so marine species don’t die.

Hoque ’18 said, “every single project has their unique future implications, whether it’s creating a safer traveling regime for vaccines or making us age slower or even helping to find a cure cancer. Plus we are most likely going to continue our projects and aid in real world issues.”

This research competition was sponsored by the New York City Department of Education and the City University of New York (CUNY).

NYCSEF isn’t the only fair for the next generation to try to make a difference. Seniors are preparing for the next competition, Teptu STEM Research Conference, which will take place on Monday, April 3.

Written by Jonathan Krimgold and Klyve Morisseau (Class of 2018).
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 edition of Argus.

Anxious presenters stood next to their boards as they explained their projects to the public at the New York City Science and Engineering Fair on Sunday, March 1.

"Seeing all those projects were really helpful to me because I learned how the projects are being displayed and it teaches us things that can possibly benefit the world," said Matthew Chung ’16.

The New York City Science and Engineering Fair, NYCSEF, was held at City College in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan. This is known to be the largest science fair for New York high school students. Students from various high schools entered, including Brooklyn Technical High School, Edward R. Murrow High School, and Stuyvesant High School.

According to Mr. Glenn Elert, Science Research Coordinator, there were 450 projects, 578 students, and 120 became finalists. Nine of those finalists included Midwood’s Michael Divgun ’15, Tamneya Hauter ’15, Syeda HIllary ’15, Zainab Iqbal ’15, Sandra Lin ’15, Lucy Lin ’15, Monique Powell ’15, Emily Tse ’15, and Raymond Yu ’15.

Seniors in the Science Research program presented their projects in the science fair. The judges who viewed the presentations varied from Google employees to professors at universities.

"In the beginning, I was really nervous and scared, but as judges started coming and I presented to my first judge, I started to relax more," said Dina Deng ’15. "It was a fun experience because you got to see what other people researched and studied."

Mr. Elert also attended as a judge for the science fair.

"It’s like being a teacher, you’re just grading someone’s work," said Mr. Elert. "They had over 400 judges, which was the largest amount ever. There were so many judges that they ran out of judge IDs."

After the seniors were done presenting to the judges, the science fair was open for public viewing which the sophomores and juniors attended.

"I wanted them to see what the event was like before they went for real," Mr. Elert said, "Meaning going in for competing as opposed to just observing."

Michelle Do ’16 said, "It was a really nice and enriching experience because now that I know first hand what is happening, I will work on my project even more since I will be doing this same exact thing in a year from now."

Final rounds will take place at The American Museum of Natural History in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life on March 24. Experts in 14 different science and engineering fields will judge the finalists. Out of those finalists, around 20 students will be chosen to represent New York City in May at the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"I was astounded by the news that I got into the NYCSEF finals," said Yu. "I feel honored to be selected as a finalist and am excited for the upcoming final round."

The prizes for the winners of the final round include over $4,000,000 in scholarships and awards as well as an all expenses paid trip to Pittsburgh. However, above all else, these presentations showcased the hard work and passion of the students.

Iqbal said, "I attended because I wanted to present my project and hopefully go somewhere with it. Psychology can also be very underestimated sometimes because you usually see chemistry and physics, but not a lot of psychology."

Written by Christine Ly and Amanda Kwong.
This article originally appeared in the March 2015 edition of Argus.

Scholarships and awards worth up to $5,000 a year were presented to New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) finalists on March 27 at Hunter College, mere days after the NYCSEF finals round on March 25 at the American Museum of Natural History.

At the finals round, the long tables stretched across the hall in rows with projects on top. A enormous blue whale hung from the ceiling, and students waited patiently for the judges to walk around. A total of 100 projects were presented at the NYCSEF finals round from students all over New York City. 13 of those participants were Midwood students.

"Part of the fun of NYCSEF is to learn from other people’s projects, not just your own," said Raquel Hosein ’14.

The following seniors were awarded at the finals. Raquel Hosein and Allen Barbarovich won first place and second place was awarded to M. Tasnin Kabir. Third place was awarded to Yasmine Brown-Williams, Varvara Budetti and Alisha Bunting, Amy Cao and Ying Tong Guo, Stefanie Henry, Xin Yi Chen, Shadika Jahan and Kiara Nunez, and Tiffany Mai. These awards were given to projects that were outstanding.

"It’s a small reward for all the work we put in," said Allen Barbarovich.

Additional awards were also given out. Jelissa Castro ’14 and Samuel Genchikmakher ’14 received the Sarah and Morris Wiesenthal Award, which includes a $100 honorarium. The award is given to projects that bring awareness to the man-made and natural environment. Budetti and Bunting also received the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for their water related projects and were identified as NY State Semifinalists. Chen received the Association for Women Geoscientists Award and the Jenny Hunter Scholarship Award. She will receive a $1000 scholarship to Hunter College, renewable for 4 years. Hosein received the Frank W. and Jane J. Stahl Memorial Award for Technical Excellence, this award includes a $200 reward.

"The last three years have been really outstanding for us," said Glenn Elert, Science Research Coordinator.

Hosein and Barbarovich were chosen to be Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) alternates. 15 projects were selected from this year’s competition to continue on to ISEF in Los Angeles, from May 11-16.

According to Mr. Elert, there are still many more competitions left to compete in this year, including the New York City Academic, Cultural, Technological & Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), Google Science Fair, and Brooklyn College Science Day.

Saba Sakhi & Jacquelyne Gilman
This article originally appeared in the April 2014 edition of Argus.

Science projects varying from Microbiology to Behavioral and Social Sciences were displayed at this year’s preliminary round of New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) on Sunday, March 2 at The City College of New York. Students competed in the hopes of making it to the finals.

With a total of 13 senior students making it to finals, things are looking great for Midwood. Allen Barbarovich, Yasmine Brown-Williams, Varvara Budetti, Alisha Bunting, Amy Cao, Ying Tong Guo, Xin Yi Chen, Stefanie Henry, Raquel Hosein, Shadika Jahan, Kiara Nuñez, M. Tasnin Kabir, and Tiffany Mai are this year’s proud finalists.

"This is the largest science event in NYC," said Glenn Elert, Science Research coordinator.

NYCSEF not only allows students to present their projects, but also gives participants an opportunity to widen their knowledge of science by reading other projects.

Both students from Science Research and Social Science Research competed at the event. 482 projects (including teams) were presented and over 600 high school students participated. Projects that scored the top 20–25 percent in their category went on to the finals, which are about 100–150 projects.

Senior research students at the
NYCSEF Preliminaries

Dr. William, a judge, said projects are graded mainly on quality of work, creativity, and understanding of material. The grading follows a rubric and is on a 1–10 scale. Each project was reviewed by three judges, and the grade for each project is then averaged.

"I feel confident but nervous because I have to go against all those other contestants," said Ying Tong Guo ’14.

The Finals Round will be held on Tuesday, March 25 at The American Museum of Natural History, followed by an Award Ceremony two days later at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.

The next step is the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The top finalists get an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles, California, where they can receive awards and scholarships.

"I was in awe when I found out I won. I could not believe I made it to finals," said Alisha Bunting ’14.

Juniors from Science Research also went to NYCSEF to look at projects. It was mandatory for them to go and write about the projects that were of interest.

"Going to NYCSEF helped me because now I know how many other people I have to compete against next year," said Cindy Chee ’15. "I realized how much time and effort everyone has put into their projects for this event."

Saba Sakhi & Marisol Morales
This article originally appeared in the March 2014 edition of Argus.