Students at Mira Loma, Vista Del Lago and Folsom high schools took top honors over the weekend at the Sacramento Regional Science & Engineering Fair held at Rosemont High School in Sacramento.
Nikhil Kotha, a Mira Loma student and Folsom resident, captured first place at the Saturday event with his project, "Prediction of Tyrosine S sulfation in Viral G-Protein Coupled Receptors; Subversion of Host responses by viruses."
Need translation? The project predicted the probability of a type of protein modification and found this phenomenon to occur. More translation? The study showed these viruses (and perhaps many more) are being enhanced and that, subsequently, current drugs are not as effective in fighting the viruses.
Shyamal Buch, a senior at Vista Del Lago, won second place with his project, "An Atomistic, First-Principles Study of N-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide," which applied computational methods to study a promising material.
And Nathaniel Varghese, student at Folsom High, received a third place win for his project, "A Robust Human Fall Detection Wireless System," which detects when a person falls and transmits an alert to a remote site
The winners will advance to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. the week of May 12-17 to compete against hundreds of students from around the world. The prizes will include $3 million in scholarships.
The local fair's organizing sponsors included the Intel Corporation, Professional Engineers in California Government, California Association of Professional Scientists, Liberty Mutual, Aerojet, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and others.
Loretta Kalb started her reporting career at The Sacramento Union, moved to KOVR-13 as a television reporter, editor and producer, headed to The Associated Press in San Francisco and eventually returned to Sacramento and joined The Sacramento Bee. Throughout her career, she has covered the state Legislature, courts, local government and, now, education. She is a Chico native and an Elk Grove resident.
Diana Lambert began her journalism career as a proofreader at the Lodi News-Sentinel. She is now a senior writer at The Sacramento Bee covering K-12 education and California State University, Sacramento. Previously she was The Bee’s Elk Grove bureau chief. Lambert was raised in a military family and lived at bases around the globe. She attended four high schools, graduating from Tokay High in Lodi and then Sacramento State University. She lives in Elk Grove.
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