Students Recognized for Science Research Excellence

Students in Kristina Gremski's science research course recently competed in two of the most competitive science fairs in the country, the Westchester Science & Engineering Fair (WESEF) and the New York State Science & Engineering Fair (NYSSEF), and came home winners in several categories.
 
Gremski is proud of what her students have accomplished, noting the tremendous growth of the juniors and seniors. “They have been carrying out original research, which is something that most students don’t experience until graduate school,” she said. “Beyond that, the students have had the experience of building relationships with college professors, presenting their research in front of experts, and learning how to answer challenging questions.”

Caterina Stoica '24, in addition to winning other accolades, was selected to represent New York at the prestigious International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Dallas in May. 

“I am very excited about being selected to continue on to ISEF,” Stoica said. “It has been so great to meet the students who have done such interesting work in a variety of fields at WESEF and NYSSEF, and I look forward to meeting other passionate students from around the world at ISEF and getting the opportunity to compete alongside them.”

NYSSEF
Caterina Stoica ’24 
“Investigating Anatomical Connectivity in Individuals With Autism Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging”
  • 2023 ISEF Finalist “Grand Award”: advancement to ISEF to represent New York State
  • 1st place in the Biomedical and Health Sciences category
  • U.S. Air Force Award: for an outstanding project in STEM fields
  • U.S. Agency for International Development Science Champion Award: for a project that has the potential to make an impact on addressing international development challenges
 
Michael Stoica ’25
“A Novel Approach to Diagnosing Ash Tree Infestation: The Use of a Portable Gas Sensor to Measure VOC Emissions of Ash Trees”
  • 3rd place in the Plant Sciences category
 
Eugene Hwang ’24
“Augmented Alignment: A Novel Cross-Lingual Zero-Shot Framework for Extremely Low-Resourced Endangered Languages”
  • 3rd place in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category
 
Charlie Cooper ’23 
“Measuring Biodiversity on Neighboring Uninhabited and Inhabited Beaches”
  • Honorable Mention in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category
     
Leo Horton ’24
“Recording the Effects of the Changing Environment in a Mid-Atlantic Marsh Over Five Centuries”
  • Honorable Mention in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category

WESEF
Ella Dundas ’23
“Examining the Relationship Between Ferroptotic and Sarmoptotic Cell Death” 
  • 4th place in the Neuroscience category
 
Caterina Stoica ’24
  • Excellence in Medicine award from the Westchester Academy of Medicine
 
Michael Stoica ’24
  • 1st place in the Plant Sciences category
  • Science Teachers Association of New York State Science Congress “Grand Award”: invitation to present at the NYS Science Congress
  • Bedford Audubon award: for a project that promotes conservation of wildlife habitats

SHARE Article