Plankton Wars and Planetary Defense Take Best Project Awards at This Year's Canada-Wide Science Fair

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week, 371 young scientists, engineers, and innovators competed at the 60th annual Canada-Wide Science Fair hosted virtually in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with seven students winning the best project and platinum awards. During Thursday evening’s awards ceremony, a total of 201 students, representing 188 award-winning projects, were presented medals, award certificates and scholarships totalling $942,600. The virtual event has attracted over 35,000 online visitors during the weeklong competition and celebration of youth in STEM with a final day of activities remaining on the schedule.

“Congratulations to all the finalists and award winners at this year's Canada-Wide Science Fair," said Reni Barlow, executive director at Youth Science Canada. "But beyond that, we congratulate every Canadian student who undertook a STEM project over the past year. We celebrate their curiosity, ingenuity, and perseverance, which are so important to the development of new knowledge and solutions. More than ever, Canada and the world needs the ideas and inspiration of our youth, and we are eager to see their projects at next year’s regional fairs and the Canada-Wide Science Fair.”

Top winners selected by over 250 judges include:

The Best Project Awards:

Best Project: Discovery
Annabelle Rayson from Lambton County, Ontario, for: Plankton Wars: An Innovative Analysis of Daphnia Genotype Biomanipulation for Algae Bloom Prevention.
Link to project

Best Project: Innovation
Arushi Nath from Toronto, Ontario, for: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python.
Link to project

Platinum Awards: Best Senior (grade 11/12/Cégep)
Innovation
Koral Kulacoglu and Hanze Wu from York, Ontario, for: FourSight: Analysis of Cancerous Genetic Profiles With Artificial Neural Networks.
Link to project

Platinum Awards: Best Intermediate (grade 9/10)
Discovery
Jasmine Schneider from Waterloo-Wellington, Ontario, for: Phosphate Removal from Groundwater Using Mussel Shell Biochar.
Link to project

Platinum Award: Best Intermediate (grade 9/10)
Innovation
Max Du from Calgary, Alberta, for: A Novel Pre-Hospital Indoor Rescue Drone.
Link to project

Platinum Awards: Best Junior (grade 7/8)
Discovery
Audrey Cowen from Toronto, Ontario, for: The Hidden Side of Your Dog's Love.
Link to project

The 60^th edition of the Canada-Wide Science Fair and STEM Expo continues until Friday, May 20 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Projects remain online for public viewing even after the event has concluded.

The complete list of Canada-Wide Science Fair award recipients is available at youthscience.ca. The 61st edition of the Canada-Wide Science Fair will take place in Edmonton from May 13-19, 2023.

The public is invited to meet the best project and platinum award winners on Friday, May 20 at 12:30 p.m. EDT. The panel discussion will be broadcast live at https://www.facebook.com/ysc.sjc/live

Members of the media are also invited to participate.

Media who wish to pose a question to the winners can contact Dalia Esposito at dalia@torchiacom.com to submit questions. Winners will also be made available to media throughout the week of May 23, 2022.

About Youth Science Canada
Youth Science Canada fuels the curiosity of Canadian youth through STEM projects. A registered charity incorporated in 1966, YSC delivers on its mission through national programs including mySTEMspace, the National STEM Fair Network, Canada-Wide Science Fair, STEM Expo, Team Canada representation at international fairs and Smarter Science professional development for teachers. Through these programs, YSC provides direct support to the more than 500,000 students who do STEM projects in any given year. For more information, visit youthscience.ca