By Louise Lawter, Princeton Section of the ACS
Several West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South and High School North students were First and Second Place prize winners at the 11th Annual American Chemical Society’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM) Chemagination Competition held at Princeton University on Saturday, May 18. Forty-six students representing the Maryland, New York, North Jersey, Philadelphia, Princeton and Trenton ACS local sections participated.
These students qualified to compete on the regional level by placing First in their category at their local Chemagination contests earlier this spring.
Chemagination is an event in which high school students, working in teams of two or three, are asked to imagine that they are living 25 years in the future and have been invited to write an article for “ChemMatters” an ACS magazine for high school students. The subject of the article is: “Describe a recent breakthrough or innovation in chemistry and/or its applications that has improved the quality of people’s lives today.” The article is written to be in one of four categories: Alternative Energy, Environment, Medicine/Health or New Materials. In addition to the article, students must also design the cover of the magazine.
In this MARM competition, teams were evaluated and winners selected based on the quality of their article, their poster display and their ability to defend the science behind their innovation during interviews with judges.
Taking home the honors were:
Jim Han, Catherine Lee and Angela Mao from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South who placed First in the Alternative Energy category with their entry “Thermoelectricity: A New Wave of Energy Efficiency”. Their faculty advisor was Mrs. Cindy Jaworsky.
Nehal Gupta, Jhillika Patel and Jayati Verma of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North who placed First in the New Materials category with their entry “Superomniphobic Surfaces: Omnipresent Superheroes”. Their faculty advisor was Dr. Andrea Knorr.
Vineeth Sedda, Ram Seshadri Muthukumar and Zachary Singer of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South who placed Second in the Environment category with their entry “How Did We Grow-zone More Ozone?”. Their faculty advisor was Mrs. Cindy Jaworsky.
Other winners were
First, Environment – Matthew Avallone, Jordan Brodsky and Brandon Nomberg, Half Hollow Hills High School West, NY, “Microbial Fuel Cells: A Powerful Bacteria”.
First, Medicine/Health – Isabella Grabski, Kellie Heom and Rachel Yang, Bergen County Academies, NJ – “The Blood Brain Barrier Gun: Controlled Drug Delivery Through Ultrasonic-Mediated Microfluidics”.
Tie for First, New Materials – Jack Chen and Sara Sinno, McDonogh School, MD,, “Microfire Technology”.
Second, Alternative Energy – Geoffrey Krug, Lexie Savarese and Patrick Washington, Garnet Valley High School, PA, “CO2 Crisis Solved?”
Second, Medicine/Health – Ananya Chandra, Catherine Yang and Amy Zhou, Garnet Valley High School, PA, “Breathalyzers: Changing the Lives of Diabetics”
MARM Chemagination 2013 was sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting Executive Board of the American Chemical Society.

