Fourteen students from the school stood in a pool of over 1,000 students from schools all across the Santa Clara Valley on March 14, presenting what had been months of research and scientific lab hours that ultimately compiled into one single poster at the Synopsys Science and Engineering Fair.

Judges from high-profile companies and foundations listened intently in order to designate winners from each category of research, ranging from Biochemistry/Microbiology to Software Engineering. The award ceremony will be held on April 8.

From SHS, the freshman participating were Krish Chaudhary, Kaushik Jasti, Arvind Ramachandran and Alekhya Vadlakonda; the sophomores were Raj Janardhan, Ashvin Maheshwar and Ananya Vadlakonda; the juniors were Mackenzie Lee, Ruchi Maheshwari, Sohil Pokharna, Kiran Rachamallu and Arian Raje; the seniors were Aayush Gupta and Sohini Kar.

Year after year, the school continues to show a solid attendance at the fair. As a result of the fair being filled with novel research that goes beyond what is typically encountered in the classroom, it continues to draw students interested in science year after year.

“Science fair gives me a way to express my creativity through the topics I chose to research and through the methods that I choose to go about that research,” Alekhya Vadlakonda said. “Even though this year was my fourth year competing, the [level] of innovation still never ceases to excite me.”