Maharishi School students ride momentum to state fair

AMES ? Following an impressive showing at the Eastern Iowa Science and Engineering Fair in March, Maharishi School students were right back on the podium at the state-level contest April 4.

The State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa, held on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, had Maharishi School students competing against more than 450 students. Students were judged on creative ability, scientific thought or technology goals, research thoroughness, technical skill, clarity and dramatic value in the oral presentation.

Maharishi School students honored were seniors Atreya Dey, Raph Burne and Dominic Borg; juniors Pearl Sawhney and Sam Arsanjani; and freshmen Surya Sawhney and Vinit Suganur.

Dey placed first in the chemistry category and third in the Senior Individual Physical Seminar. He also won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. Dey?s project was entitled ?Biobased Ferrite Nanoparticles: A Novel Approach to Extract Organic Solvents and Heavy Metals from Water.?

Burne finished first in the Senior Individual Physical Seminar, second in the engineering category, was a senior high semifinalist, and received an Iowa Energy Center award. His project was entitled ?Building Materials of the Future: Honeycomb Cardboard.?

Borg placed third in the engineering category for ?The Effects of Acoustic Damping on the Bass Response of Loudspeakers.?

The Sawhney siblings were honored as Overall Senior High Team Reserve Champions and senior high semifinalists. They placed first in the Senior Team Seminar and second in the behavioral and social science category. Their project was named ?Consumption of Animal Protein vs. Plant Protein: Exploring Solutions to Obesity and Environmental Sustainability.?

Arsanjani earned second in the computer science category, received the Intel Excellence in Computer Science award, and was a senior high semifinalist. Arsanjani?s project was entitled ?RoboRescue: Using AI and Bayesian Networks in Swarms of Robots to Simulate and Increase Efficiency in Search and Rescue Operations.?

Suganur placed second in the plant sciences category and third in the Individual Biological Seminar. His project was ?A Comparative Study of the Effect of Caffeine and Coffee Grounds on Soybean Growth and Metabolism.?