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2026 STS Winners

40 winners across 14 states. Showing every district that named a winner.

Arizona (1)

A-BiRD: An Automated Bird Recognition Device for Acoustic Monitoring and Conservation

Finnegan McGill
Tanque Verde High School · Tucson · Finalist ($25,000)

California (10)

The Dual Canonical Basis in the Spin Representation via the Temperley-Lieb Algebra

Rachel Chen
Marlborough School · Los Angeles · Finalist ($25,000)

Designing Incentive-Compatible Cooperation for the Global Commons: A Reinforcement Learning-Integrated Mechanism Design Framework for Arctic Conservation

Ryka Chopra
Mission San Jose High School · Fremont · Finalist ($25,000)

Frequency-Based Parameterization of Semi-Empirical Models for State-of-Health Estimation in Lithium-Ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles

Colin Jie Chu
The Nueva School · San Mateo · Finalist ($25,000)

An Unrestricted Notion of the Finite Factorization Property

Jonathan Du
Los Altos High School · Mountain View · Finalist ($25,000)

Photobiomodulation on In Vivo and In Vitro Wound Models Under Simulated Microgravity for Future Space Travel

Leanne Fan
Westview School · San Diego · Finalist ($25,000)

PLI-Analyzer: A Novel Platform for Quantitative Assessment of Structural and Biological Accuracy in AI-Predicted Protein-Protein Complexes

Frances Liang
The Nueva School · Los Altos Hills · Finalist ($25,000)

AEGIS: Security Sandboxing Meets Mechanistic Interpretability To Defend Against Prompt Injection Attacks

Kevin Lu
Bellarmine College Preparatory School · Santa Clara · Finalist ($25,000)

Learning Broken Symmetries With Approximate Invariance: A Novel Dual-Subnetwork Approach to Classifying Particle Collision Events

Seth Jacob Nabat
William Howard Taft High School · Winnetka · Finalist ($25,000)

Star2Planet: Decoding and Predicting the Stellar Signatures of Planet Formation

Max Hung Nguyen
Leland High School · San Jose · Finalist ($25,000)

Bioinformatic Analysis of Metastasis-Associated Metabolic Landscape Reveals an Oncogenic Role for the Transsulfuration Pathway

Jonathan Yan
Sage Hill School · Irvine · Finalist ($25,000)

Colorado (1)

A Novel Field-Based Approach to Reducing Harmful Algal Blooms in Freshwater Ecosystems

Natalie Muro
William J. Palmer High School · Colorado Springs · Finalist ($25,000)

Connecticut (1)

Repurposing Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Drugs To Treat Vascular Alzheimer’s Dementia: A Safe, Effective and Accessible Approach to Alzheimer’s Treatment

Leon Wang
King School · Stamford · Finalist ($25,000)

Kentucky (1)

Next-Gen Smart Materials: Thermo-Responsive and Conductive 3D Printable Polymer Gels for Diverse Applications

Vallabh Ramesh
duPont Manual Magnet High School · Louisville · Finalist ($25,000)

Maryland (2)

Pharmacologic Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Activation for Suppression of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells: Implications for Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Sophia Liang
Centennial High School · Ellicott City · Finalist ($25,000)

When Epidemics Meet: Understanding Spatiotemporal Interactions of Two Pathogens on Metapopulation Networks via Reaction-Diffusion Dynamics

Alyssa Yu
Poolesville High School · Clarksburg · Finalist ($25,000)

Massachusetts (1)

A Unified Protein Embedding Model With Local and Global Structural Sensitivity

Jerry Xu
Lexington High School · Lexington · Finalist ($25,000)

New Jersey (6)

Using Deep Learning for Robust Classification of Fast Radio Bursts

Rohan Arni
High Technology High School · Lincroft · Finalist ($25,000)

AI-Powered Thermal Fingerprinting: Predicting PLA Tensile Strength Through Schlieren Imaging

Mason Corey
Kingsway Regional High School · Swedesboro · Finalist ($25,000)

I2-CISSP: An Interpretable Machine Learning Framework for Robust and Practical Prediction of Cisplatin Response in Human Tumors

Mythreya Dharani
Bergen County Academies · Hackensack · Finalist ($25,000)

A Novel In Vitro Cell Culture Model for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Claire Jiang
Bergen County Academies · Hackensack · Finalist ($25,000)

RetinaMind: Convergent In Silico and In Vitro Evidence for the Retina as a Novel Biomarker in the Early Diagnosis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Edward Kang
Bergen County Academies · Hackensack · Finalist ($25,000)

Designing Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Agent Motion Planning

Celine Zhang
Phillips Exeter Academy · Princeton · Finalist ($25,000)

New York (5)

Neuroinflammatory Signatures and Compensatory Prefrontal Mechanisms in Long COVID-19: Insights From 7T MRI and Cognitive Modeling

Jashvi Desai
Yorktown High School · Yorktown Heights · Finalist ($25,000)

The Supermassive Problem: Probing Potential Stellar Formation Pathways of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes

Khushi Karthikeyan
Ardsley High School · Ardsley · Finalist ($25,000)

Ozempic® and Counterfeit Ozempic in Novel Triple-Readout Drosophila Model With Type-2 Diabetes and Obesity

Kaya Parikh
Hunter College High School · New York · Finalist ($25,000)

Development of N-glycan Microarrays as Sensors for Glycan Binders

Siddharth Pasari
Hunter College High School · New York City · Finalist ($25,000)

Selective Dual Inhibition of β-Catenin in Wnt-Driven Cancers via Gid8-Assisted Translocation and a Precision Peptide-Based Gene Therapy

Ashka Shah
Jericho Senior High School · Jericho · Finalist ($25,000)

North Carolina (1)

Compositional Analysis of Visual Art Structure

Ella Lu
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics · Chapel Hill · Finalist ($25,000)

Oregon (1)

Distilling Empathy From Large Language Models

Henry Xie
Westview High School · Portland · Finalist ($25,000)

Pennsylvania (3)

Predictability and Statistical Memory in Classical Sonatas and Quartets

Linus Chen-Plotkin
Germantown Friends School · Philadelphia · Finalist ($25,000)

The Complete Set of Noble Polyhedra

Connor Hill
Delta High School · State College · Finalist ($25,000)

Targeted Isolation of Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Using a Cocktail of Magnetic Nanospheres for Minimally Invasive Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

Audrey Zheng
North Allegheny Senior High School · Wexford · Finalist ($25,000)

Texas (6)

Affine Group of Integers Modulo n, Conjugacy Classes and Representations

Jaeho Lee
Spring Branch Academic Institute · Houston · Finalist ($25,000)

SubArc: An Inexpensive, High Resolution, Open Source, Absolute Magnetic Rotary Encoder

Frank Lucci
BASIS San Antonio Shavano Campus · San Antonio · Finalist ($25,000)

Utilizing Ants To Mitigate MSW Landfill-Generated Methane Production Through Novel Aerobic Digester System for Anthropogenic Food Waste Decomposition

Ananya Gulur Nagendra
Plano East Senior High School · Plano · Finalist ($25,000)

Sim-to-Real for Autonomous Tumor Resection via Minimally Invasive Robotics

Rayhan Papar
The Woodlands College Park High School · Spring · Finalist ($25,000)

Assessing Marine Bivalves as Novel Invertebrate Models for Targeting Anti-Apoptotic BCL-2 Family Proteins in Blood Cancer: The In Vivo Effects of Ursolic Acid and Gossypol Acetic Acid on Tumor Cells in Mercenaria mercenaria

Iris Shen
The Woodlands College Park High School · The Woodlands · Finalist ($25,000)

Glia-Neuron GPCR Signaling as a Therapeutic Route to Axon Regeneration: cAMP-PKA Activation Elevates Excitability and Regrowth in Neurons

Uma Maya Sthanu
Westwood High School · Austin · Finalist ($25,000)

Virginia (1)

A Novel Approach to Understanding the Structural Basis of Ribosome Stalling by AMD1 and Cellular Arresting Peptides

Aashritha Penumudi
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology · Herndon · Finalist ($25,000)