A New Generation of TJ Students Will See Their Satellite Launched into Space

For the second time, a satellite built by TJ students will fly on a NASA mission. When NASA announced the list of academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and NASA centers chosen to participate in the eighth round of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), TJ was one of three secondary schools on the list. TJ’s satellite will fly as an auxiliary payload aboard a mission planned to launch in 2018, 2019, or 2020. The exact launch date is not yet known and will depend on payload space, among other factors.

The First Launch of a High School Satellite

Many in the TJ community recall the excitement when on November 19, 2013 TJ³Sat (pronounced “CubeSat”) was launched into space from Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, aboard an Orbital Minotaur I rocket (see Nov 2013 issue). TJ’s CubeSat, the culmination of seven years of work by over 50 students, was launched that day as part of the fourth installment of NASA’s CSLI. It was the first launch of a satellite designed and built by high school students (see Washington Post Nov 19, 2013).

The Second Generation: TJREVERB

A prototype of TJREVERB

CubeSats are small cube-shaped nanosatellites, with dimensions of about 4 inches on each side, weighing less than 3 pounds and with a volume of about a quart. TJ’s second CubeSat, dubbed TJREVERB (Thomas Jefferson Research and Education Vehicle for Evaluating Radio Broadcasts), will bring together over forty students from three of TJ’s Senior Research Labs — Energy Systems, Mobile & Web App Development, and Automation & Robotics — with members of a newly formed CubeSat Team 8th period club.

Many of the current Project Leads, whose senior research projects in various labs are unrelated to CubeSat, devote lunch periods, 8th period, and after-school time to the project. TJREVERB Principal Investigator, Energy Systems Lab Director Michael Piccione, aims to involve many different groups of students on the complex project in order to ensure that there is a pipeline of students who can assume leadership after the graduation of the first cohort of project leads.

Student Project Leads:
Stephanie Chen, TJ ’17, Systems Engineer
Diana Zavela, TJ ’17, Project Coordinator

Subsystem Leads:
Shihao Cao, TJ ’19, Website
Stephanie Chen, TJ ’17, Orbit & Communications
Emma Cuddy, TJ ’17, Outreach (formerly Proposal Writing)
Michael Krause, TJ ’18, Software
Shrikant Mishra, TJ ’17, Electronics
Suhas Sastry, TJ ’17, Testing & Verification
Adit Shah, TJ ’17, Structural Design

To be eligible for participation in CSLI, the CubeSats must have research and/or educational purposes. TJREVERB has both. Its primary research goal is to evaluate the effectiveness and ease of use of at least two on-board radio systems in a deployed CubeSat and determine the feasibility of at least two methods of ground communication. The project also supports multiple educational objectives. In addition to designing, launching, and testing the satellite, and evaluating multiple communication methods, students intend to create a best-practices document so that TJ students and others can apply their learning to future projects. At the same time, students will learn to manage a large workforce and complex workflow. Finally, because the high school team is in an excellent position to leverage their own work in encouraging other K-12 students in STEM and aerospace, the satellite supports a significant outreach component. In fact, non-seniors are required to devote one year to outreach before they can become full-fledged members of the technical team.

TJREVERB Outreach Initiatives

Project Coordinator Diana Zavela, TJ ’17, speaks at the project’s Feasibility Review.

TJ is partnering with two companies on the project: Ragnarok Industries is donating some of the avionics — the electrical power system, flight computer, and the attitude determination and control system; Emergent Space Technologies is donating the chassis and is extending offers of summer internships and training assistance. TJREVERB will communicate with school-based ground systems using a UHF downlink and VHF uplink transceiver donated by AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation). An S-Band transmitter will be used for testing NASA’s Near Earth Network, and a Globalstar Simplex radio will transmit 24/7 proof-of-life data. Information transmitted may include system health and sensor data, a control data file, and images from the star-tracker. Ultimately, the student researchers hope to study each communication system’s effectiveness by researching communication capabilities and power usage of the various radios while manipulating the orientation of the CubeSat.

In October, the project underwent a Merit Review that focused on the project’s plans to address NASA’s educational and outreach goals. Participating mentors and reviewers were: Ms. Brenda Dingwall, Technology Project Manager, NASA Wallops Flight Facility Advanced Projects Office; Mr. Frank Bauer, FBauer Aerospace Consulting Services and AMSAT member; Dr. Carlos Niederstrasser, Master Systems Engineer, Orbital ATK and mentor for TJ³Sat; and Ms. Hannah Goldberg, TJ ’99, Senior Systems Engineer, Planetary Resources.

From left to right, Mr. Luigi Balarinni, CEO Ragnarok, REVERB Systems Engineer and Orbits & Communication Subsystem (O&C) Lead Stephanie Chen, TJ ’17, O&C team member Thomas Baron, TJ ’18, Software Subsystem Lead Michael Krause, TJ ’18, Electronics team member Liam David, TJ ’18, Project Coordinator Diana Zavela, TJ ’17, Outreach Subsystem Lead Emma Cuddy, TJ ’17, Energy Systems Lab Director Michael Piccione, and Dr. Sun Hur-Diaz, Chief Engineer, Emergent, at the November 11, 2016 Feasibility Review (courtesy Michael Piccione)

In November, the project team conducted a detailed multi-hour Feasibility Review to assess the project’s compliance with NASA launch requirements, the reasonableness of the proposed schedule, and its probability of success, and to obtain constructive feedback on design and implementation. Two project mentors  — Mr. Luigi Balarinni, CEO and founder of Ragnarok, and Dr. Sun Hur-Diaz, Chief Engineer at Emergent — participated, along with the following reviewers: CDR Jeff King, Military Professor of Aerospace Engineering, US Naval Academy; Mr. John Rotter, retired USN Space Systems Engineer; Ms. Goldberg; and Mr. Nantel Suzuki, Parent ’14, ’15, Robotic Lunar Lander program executive, NASA Headquarters.

With the project’s concept now approved, the hardest work begins. The project timeline maps out several overlapping stages leading up to delivery and launch of the CubeSat, including: preliminary design development (3 months), subsystem design implementation (4 months), establishment of critical design (3 months), systems integration and testing (2 months), and operational readiness and review (2 months). The team hopes to be ready to take advantage of the first available launch opportunity.

Follow the project’s progress on its website and Facebook page.

Alum Returns with Wellness Message

Dr. Chen and two colleagues founded the Center three years ago to support the emotional health of students from non-Western cultural backgrounds who were developing anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts in disproportionate numbers. The founding physicians agreed that solving these problems required an emphasis on early recognition, education, and primary prevention. There’s a bit of “hypocrisy,” Dr. Chen admitted, in using the Harvard name to spread the message that parents should think at least as much about their children’s mental and emotional health as they do about their education. “We have fancy credentials, but that’s not why you should listen to us,” he advised. “We’re not here as experts. We hope to plant seeds of thought.”

TJ is the perfect place to share the message of cross-cultural emotional wellness. In her introduction, Shivani, whose Minds Matter Club organizes Mental Wellness Week and Stress Less, Laugh More Week at TJ, stated that in her opinion a lot of the anxiety felt by TJ students stems from “insecurity and comparing yourself with others.” To illustrate her point, she shared an anecdote from her sophomore year. When she told a friend that her junior year schedule included four AP classes, the friend responded, “Only four?”

Lu, who also spoke frankly at TJ’s Lunar New Year Celebration (see Lunar, this issue), explained that she initially approached her twins’ education as a typical Chinese parent, believing that her kids “must go to the best schools and get the best grades, win academic honors, and gain entrance into elite colleges.” Over time, she came to believe that in pursuit of this success, “we forget what’s best for our kids.” When we tell our kids “college is everything,” we are also telling them that we lack confidence in them and making it harder for them to develop the intrinsic motivation that they need for long-term success.

If TJ is the best place to share the message of cross-cultural wellness, then clearly there is no better spokesperson for that message than an Asian-American TJ alum who understands the educational demands and parental pressures of the typical TJ student. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” Dr. Chen began, describing his years at TJ. “Whether it was understanding the beauty of calculus, or that ‘aha’ moment in organic chemistry . . .  or the joy of being totally, unapologetically nerdy and creative  . . . Where else in the world does that happen?” He took a moment to thank several of his TJ teachers, all of whom had retired. But despite the tremendous opportunities, there was a downside. “High school was one of the most stressful times in my life,” the psychiatrist said, describing how the memories of all the anxiety – especially from junior year – came over him as he prepared his lecture. No matter how hard I worked, I had “the nagging suspicion that it was never enough.”

Parents were asked to text words that described how they defined their children’s success. The size of each word reflects the number of times it appears in parents’ responses. The “wordle” shown is about 80% complete.

The 160 parents and students who filled the new building’s Hopper Commons on March 4th received plenty of food for thought in exchange for giving up their Saturday afternoon. Dr. Chen and several of his Center colleagues discussed different aspects of student emotional wellness, with a special emphasis on students who are the sons and daughters of Asian immigrants, but with applicability to all students and parents:

Rohit Chandra, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, warned that when immigrant parents apply the up-or-out template from their home countries it can create “an educational arms race” in high-achieving American suburbs. He suggested a helpful analogy for parents who tend to micromanage their children’s lives out of fear that they won’t fulfill expectations. First you have to find out “what kind of ‘plant’ your kid is,” he said. Then you give the child the ideal environment and nurturing for his or her needs and “let them grow at their own pace,” he urged.

Albert Yeung, MD, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Center Co-founder, discussed how navigating cultural differences — such as the difference between Americans’ emphasis on individualism and Asians’ on conformity — can exacerbate stress.

Catherine Hwang, an Arlington County Gifted Resource Specialist who collaborated with the Center on the presentation, mentioned her “typical Korean” upbringing before describing a perfectionist personality and discussing how perfectionism can lead to mental health issues.

Dana Wang, MD, a clinical fellow in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, emphasized the importance of self-confidence in our everyday decision-making, pointing out that children who aren’t allowed to succeed – or fail – on their own can’t build the confidence they need to tackle new challenges.

Sukhmani Bal, a Boston University graduate student whose struggles with mental illness derailed her educational path more than once, said she is living proof that “you don’t have to do things right.” She urged kids who feel that their worth depends on obtaining a particular acceptance or degree to think of Van Gogh’s words: “If I’m worth something later then I’m worth something now.”

In addition to hearing from these and other interesting panelists, participants had an opportunity to chat with each other, ponder questions designed to probe their attitudes about success, failure, and parent-student relationships, and view all group members’ answers to the same questions. At the end of the forum, it was the panelists who answered participants’ questions. When a parent asked Dr. Chen whether he might hold a similar event directed primarily at students, he said it was a great idea. Stay tuned for more TJ outreach from this wise and sensitive alum on this critically important topic.

Senior Wins Big at Regeneron, ISEF

For the second year in a row, a TJ student was not only chosen as one of forty finalists by the judges of the nation’s most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors, the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), but was also selected as a top winner from among this elite group.  At a gala event held on March 14th at Washington, DC’s National Building Museum, Prathik Naidu, TJ ’17, received a 7th place prize and $70,000 for his project, “DNALoopR: A Novel High-Performance Machine Learning Predictor to Identify Genome-Wide 3D DNA Interactions in Cancer.” Last year, Kunal Shroff, TJ ’16, received the Third Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research and a $35,000 prize for his Intel STS project (see June 2016 issue).

Kunal Shroff, TJ ’16, right, visits Prathik Naidu, TJ ’17, at the public poster session of the Regeneron Science Talent Search Finals.

Formerly sponsored by Intel, and before that by Westinghouse, the Regeneron competition has a 76-year history of recognizing promising students, many of whom go on to make significant contributions to research in disciplines that range from Mathematics and Physics to Medicine & Health and Behavioral & Social Sciences. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company founded by two former competition participants, took over as the competition sponsor last May. The company’s 10-year, $100 million commitment is being used to double the prize money awarded to both semifinalists and top winners and to dramatically step up outreach efforts.

Two months later, at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles, Prathik received the Best of Category Award and First Award in the Computational Biology & Bioinformatics category, along with the Dudley R. Herschbach SIYSS Award, an invitation to present his project at a global multi-disciplinary seminar (see ISEF, below). Prathik was also selected as one of two Presidential Scholars from Virginia (the other was TJ senior Violet Felt).

Prathik’s DNALoopR software uses machine learning to accurately predict 3D DNA interactions in the cancer genome, which can help improve our understanding of cancer as well as discover targetable pathways for next-generation cancer therapies. He not only developed the first machine learning method for DNA loop prediction, one that allows scientists to pinpoint exact DNA regions where loops form with a high degree of accuracy and sensitivity and a low false positive rate, but he also validated those predictions and used them to identify a novel set of genes impacted by DNA loop formation.

TJ Chemical Analysis Lab Director and Regeneron STS & Siemens Competition Coordinator Dr. Brian Kennedy congratulates Prathik at the Regeneron Finals.

Prathik conducted the research for his Regeneron STS project while a participant at MIT’s summer Research Science Institute (RSI), a highly selective program that combines theoretical course work with lab internships (see Aug 2016 issue). As a Computational Genomics research intern in the Aryee Lab at the Broad Institute, Prathik perfected his cancer prediction software, implementing novel engineering and optimization steps to improve its performance. The judges who reviewed all of the RSI student papers selected Prathik’s as a top-ten project (see a video of his RSI presentation, with Q&A).

The previous summer, Prathik interned at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he analyzed the mutation profiles of 31 cancer types and implemented statistical algorithms to extrapolate population-level patterns from limited data points. He also conducted research over two summers in labs at Johns Hopkins. In fact, Prathik was applying computational techniques to biological data even before he arrived at TJ. Prathik’s extensive early research experience resulted in a Grand Prize at the Regional Fair and a chance to attend ISEF as a sophomore (see June 2015 newsletter).

As the only high-school student attending the flagship meeting for the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) in Dublin, Ireland, he realized what could be accomplished if other young people applied their computational skills to solving problems in biology and other fields. Aiming to inspire other middle and high school students to apply computer science to real-world problems, he worked with the ISCB to organize the first Youth Bioinformatics Symposium, which brought nearly 100 students to George Mason University for a day-long conference. A second annual Symposium is planned for this coming fall.

Prathik has also applied his computational expertise to ancient languages. He founded The Classics Project to simplify the learning of classical languages, encourage the study of Latin among elementary and middle schoolers, and use computational methods to analyze and understand ancient texts. Through the Project, he has also led veterans in the reading of “The Odyssey” and “The Aeneid.” He recently created Project Mercury, a mobile app that helps archaeologists quickly analyze ancient inscriptions, and submitted it to the MIT Inspire Awards, a national research competition in arts, humanities, and social sciences now entering its fourth year. In April, his project won First Place in the competition’s Arts & Architecture category, along with its Mozart Award for Most Original Research that comes with a $5,000 prize.

Prathik credits TJ with encouraging both his research efforts and his interdisciplinary studies: “Working on computational biology projects over the past four years has pushed me to think creatively about important problems in health care, which has definitely contributed to my interest in pursuing both computer science and biology in college. Being in an environment like TJ that’s focused on applying knowledge outside of the classroom is what motivated me to start pursuing research and trying to make an impact in the scientific community. I [also] love how even at a STEM school like TJ, the teachers and opportunities here are so open to integrating computer science and the humanities,” he said.

Senior Eric Liu Is Regeneron Scholar

Eric Liu, TJ ’17,  was recognized as a Regeneron STS Scholar (the category formerly known as “semifinalist”) for his project, “Examining Antibiotic Modulation of the Gut Microbiome and Mycobiome in Cirrhotics with Hepatic Encephalopathy.”

Big Three Research Competitions at a Glance

Regeneron: National; individuals only; seniors only; submissions due in November; awards of $2,000 to $250,ooo

Siemens: National; individuals & groups; all classes; submissions due in September; scholarships range from $1,000 to $100,000

Intel ISEF: International, individuals & groups; all classes; submissions due in February, with advancement via local, regional, and state Science Fairs; awards up to $75,000

Senior Lauryn Wu Is Siemens National Finalist

It was another great year for TJ student competitors in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Each fall, students from all over the country submit projects as individuals or in teams of up to three to compete for regional awards in six geographic regions, including TJ’s, which is based at Georgia Tech. This year, TJ students submitted nearly 50 projects, a sizeable percentage of the 1,600 submitted to the competition. Nineteen TJ student projects were selected as semifinalist projects (involving 32 TJ semifinalists), and three were selected as regional finalist projects (involving 5 TJ finalists). For the second year in a row, a TJ student was awarded first place in our region, advancing to the National Finals.

Lauryn Wu, TJ ’19, and her teammate, Yoshihiro Saito, who attends Marriotts Ridge HS in Howard County, Maryland, shared the team’s $6,000 scholarship for their Physics project, “New Discovery of Large Bulk Band Gap Topological Insulators in Chemically Functionalized Two-Dimensional Compounds.”

Four Other Students Are Siemens Regional Finalists

The following two TJ student teams also competed in the Regional Finals:

• Kelly Cho, TJ ’18, Harriet Khang, TJ ’18, and Shinbe Choi (McLean High School) for their Biochemistry project, “All-in-one Biosensor for the Prevention of Arrhythmias through the 2-min Analyses of Coagulation Factors” (mentor, Dr. Jihoon Lee, CEO, Luminescent)
• Elizabeth Ling, TJ ’19, and Richard Lun, TJ ’19, for their Materials Science project, “Searching for New Lead-free Organic Perovskite Photovoltaics” (mentor, Dr. Xuan Luo, Principal Investigator, National Graphene Research & Development Center)

Meet TJ’s Siemens National and Regional Finalists in tjTODAY (Nov 2016).

TJ students at ISEF 2017, from left to right, Srinidhi Krishnamurthy, TJ ’18, Yash Bolisetty, TJ ’18, Neeyanth Kopparapu, TJ ’20, Justin Zhang, TJ ’18, Mihir Patel, TJ ’18, Nithin Dass, TJ ’18, Siona Prasad, TJ ’19, Nikhil Sardana, TJ ’18, Kavya Kopparapu, TJ ’18, and Prathik Naidu, TJ ’17

Several TJ Students Win at Intel ISEF

The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), sponsored by Intel, is the world’s largest international science competition for pre-college students. Held this year in Los Angeles from May 14-19, ISEF welcomed 1,778 students from 78 countries, regions and territories, including two individuals and three teams from TJ:

Prathik Naidu, TJ ’17 (see above), Best of Category Award of $5,000 and First Award of $3,000 in the Computational Biology & Bioinformatics category; Regional Grand Award

Siona Prasad, TJ ’19, Estimating CO2 and CH4 Emissions from Washington DC Using Low Cost Sensors and Small Drone Technology, Second Award of $1,500 in Earth and Environmental Sciences; Regional Grand Award

Kavya Kopparapu, TJ ’18, Neeyanth Kopparapu, TJ ’20, and Justin Zhang, TJ ’18, Inexpensive Mobile Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Deep Learning, Third Award of $1,000 in Translational Medical Science; State Fair Second Grand Prize

Nikhil Sardana, TJ ’18, and Mihir Patel, TJ ’18, “Automating Identification of Terrorist Recruitment on Social Media,” Regional Fair Grand Prize in Systems Software

Yashasvi Bolisetty, TJ ’18, Nithin Dass, TJ ’18, and Srinidhi Krishnamurthy, TJ ’18, “Using a RBF Kernel SVM, DWT, and PID on an EEG Controlled Exoskeleton,” Governor’s Award and State Fair Grand Prize in Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical

TJ students stand with the rest of the FCPS delegation to ISEF 2017. Photos courtesy Kavya Kopparapu.

The journey to ISEF begins at TJ’s Science & Engineering Fair and continues from there to the Regional Fair. Regional Grand Prize winners automatically advance to ISEF, but Regional First Prize winners are eligible to compete at the state level, from which State Grand Prize winners also advance. Kavya Kopparapu, whose team won a Third Award and several sponsored awards at ISEF (as well as a First Place Award at the 2017 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge using the team name Ocular), credits Dr. Glazer with encouraging her team members when they needed it most — after they had failed to win a Grand Prize Award at Regionals and were close to giving up.

Kavya, whose ISEF-winning team includes her freshman brother, Neeyanth, also acknowledged the TJ Partnership Fund for helping to make her team’s work possible: “[TJ Energy Systems Lab Director] Mr. Piccione al​ways joked that I used a lot of 3D-printer plastic for my project models (which is undeniably true). TJ has given me the opportunity to use such cool technologies for free, which I actually mentioned to the category judges when they inquired how I, as a high school student, had access to multiple types of 3D printers and sophisticated hardware to run the classifying algorithms. This is why my brother and I are planning on giving the prize money we won back to the Partnership Fund, so that in the future another student discovering the wonders of the technology can have access to it, just like we did for our project.”

Senior Wins High School Computing Prize

In March, Senior Elizabeth Hu was selected as a winner of the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing for her geographically explicit agent-based model for studying refugee migration patterns. Unlike traditional migration models, her model attempts to account for individual differences and decision-making processes. Along with the award, Elizabeth received a $10,000 scholarship.

At the 2017 International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, from left to right William Xu, TJ ’17; Eric Wang, TJ ’17; Dr. Kai Zeng, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, George Mason University; Suhas Sastry, TJ ’17

TJ Team Invited to International Conference

A team of TJ seniors presented their engineering project,“Hardware Module-Based Message Authentication in Intra-Vehicle Networks,” at the 2017 International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems in Pittsburgh in mid-April. They worked on their vehicle cybersecurity project over two summers at George Mason University’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Kai Zeng and doctoral candidate Songsong Liu of GMU’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. The team members, who were recognized as Siemens Semifinalists both years, were very excited to be the only high school students attending this prestigious and important conference.

TJ student attendees at the MIT PRIMES Conference, from left to right, Aaditya Singh, TJ ’19, Jeffery Yu, TJ ’18, Kyle Gatesman, TJ ’18, and Joshua Lee, TJ ’18 (not pictured, Franklyn Wang, TJ ’18)

Five TJ Students Participate in MIT PRIMES Conference

Five TJ students presented their mathematical research projects at the MIT PRIMES Conference in May. The MIT PRIMES program, which is designed to encourage high school students to consider research careers, includes the PRIMES-USA program for students from outside the Boston area. Five TJ students participated in this year-long program, in which students work on original math research projects either mentored remotely by MIT graduate students or locally by mentors chosen by PRIMES:

Kyle Gatesman, TJ ’18, “An Algorithmic and Computational Approach to Optimizing Gerrymandering”

Joshua Lee, TJ ’18, “Coin Games and 5-Way Scales”

Aaditya Singh, TJ ’19,  “Generalization of Some Properties of Discrete Curve Shortening Flow” (team project)

Franklyn Wang, TJ ’18, “Monodromy Groups of Indecomposable Rational Functions”

Jeffery Yu, TJ ’18, “Jacobian Groups of Biconnected Graphs”

Team members from Rocky Run Middle School stand in front of their project board at TJ’s Invitational Science Fair.

Student Club Hosts Middle School Science Fair

A team of Rocky Run MS students eagerly explained that the inspiration for their science fair project stemmed from a nosebleed suffered by a student’s relative. The uncle of one of the students, who was taking a blood-thinner to prevent a stroke, went to the hospital with a nosebleed. Because blood thinners (e.g., the drug warfarin, commonly sold under the name Coumadin) interfere with the body’s natural clotting ability, people taking these drugs can land in the emergency room with cuts, bruises, and bleeds that for others would be mere nuisances. The student and his colleagues decided to apply their knowledge of natural astringents and drying agents to create an inexpensive, shelf-stable, homeopathic remedy to treat nuisance cuts and bleeds at home or on the go. They call their remedy, made of guar gum (a hydrophilic polymer), turmeric (an antiseptic), and tannin extract (an astringent), Hemoceez Nature Pack.

TJ’s Mythvestigations Club leadership team, from left to right: Calvin Kuo, TJ ’19, Hana Yu, TJ ’19, Andrew Stelts, TJ ’20, Isha Ghodgaonkar, TJ ’17, Jashan Matharoo, TJ ’17, and Serena Xia, TJ ’19 (photo courtesy Ishaan Dey, TJ ’18)

This impressive research team was just one of the groups showcasing their projects in the annual Invitational Science Fair conducted by TJ’s Mythvestigations Club. Founded five years ago by four girls from the Class of 2015 and sponsored since its founding by French teacher Cynthia van de Kamp Washington, the Club hopes to prepare middle schoolers for participation in high school level research competitions, encourage STEM exploration, and build research and communication skills. Each year Club members solicit and review applications, recruit judges, and organize the Fair.

The Fair is open to students in grades 5-8 residing in any of the jurisdictions that send students to TJ. Students submit a written summary, prepare a poster board, and make a 5-minute presentation. The judges — all TJ students — evaluate entries based on creativity, scientific inquiry, adherence to the scientific method, and presentation, and provide constructive criticism. The 2017 Grand Prize winner was a 7th-grade girl from Nysmith School for the Gifted, whose project proposed a method of harvesting the piezoelectricity (electric charge that accumulates in response to mechanical stress) generated by vibrations in order to reduce the energy consumption of appliances.

This year, the group added two evening statistics sessions, held in January and February, in order to help the younger students analyze data in preparation for the March 18th event. The sessions helped the participants while providing the Fair organizers a chance to try their hand at teaching a difficult subject. Sophomore Serena Xia said, “At a session held to teach students how to use inferential statistics, I realized that teaching others really brought a sense of joy. The students were curious about STEM and wanted to further their knowledge. Later at the science fair, it was so great to see the students incorporate the information from the statistics session into their projects. Knowing that my team and I have encouraged their curiosity in STEM truly is the best part of being a part of the Mythvestigations Club.”

Samuel Damashek, TJ ’17, right, with his Mentor from Invincea Labs, Scott Tenaglia

TJ’s Mentorship Program: Opportunity and Responsibility

Internship, mentorship — most of us probably use these words interchangeably, but at TJ the word mentorship typically refers to a special off-campus research experience that provides an alternate way to fulfill TJ’s senior research project requirement. TJ’s Mentorship Program is a specific opportunity open to select seniors, who explore real-world research alongside experienced scientists, clinicians, engineers, and other expert professionals several days a week for a semester or more.

Gabi McDonald, TJ ’17, left, with Dr. Andrei Medvedev, her Mentor from the Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging at Georgetown University Medical Center

Each TJ Mentorship student is integrated into a research team where the student works closely with his or her supervising scientist, often generating data that will form the basis for a published article. In addition, many Program sites have instrumentation not available even in TJ’s well-equipped labs, along with access to specialized materials and animal and human subjects. Students are usually assigned a portion of a Mentor’s project and are then held responsible for its development. Mentors are committed to the educational component of the relationship and are very generous with their time, making it an invaluable experience for students considering research careers.

Although Mentorship students’ work is directly supervised by their Mentors, they are also affiliated with one of the school’s Senior Research Laboratories and work under that Lab’s Director, who is responsible for assessing students’ progress. Both of these supervisory relationships are coordinated by the school’s Mentorship Program Director, Mr. Alfred Lampazzi, former TJ Biotechnology Lab Director, and the Mentorship Program Assistant, Susan Luxenberg. The Program features the same project requirements and academic goals as in-school laboratory research work; however, Mentors work with the Lab Directors to assist students in producing periodic deadlines for project completion.

Sanjeevani Bhavsar, TJ ’17, left, with her Mentor, Dr. Marcel Schmidt of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center

Students apply to the Mentorship Program in the first semester of their junior year, at the same time that they are applying to a TJ Senior Research Lab. In addition to the standard Senior Research Lab application, Mentorship applicants provide a resume and two faculty recommendations and are interviewed by the Program Director, who also reviews their transcript. Students are provisionally accepted into the Program, contingent on the availability of a suitable placement. The Program Director arranges for the majority of placements, taking into account the students’ interests and Mentors’ needs and expertise, although some students find Mentors on their own.

Abdalla Osman, TJ ’17, left, with his Mentor, Vivek Puri, TJ ’92, of Classic Homes of Virginia

Many Mentorship students begin working with their Mentors during the summer before their senior year, and most Mentorship students spent the first semester of their senior year at their research sites. About a quarter of the Mentorship students — those who both have flexibility in their schedules and are involved with ongoing projects or are conducting follow-up research — continue their work into the second semester.

The Mentorship student’s schedule is very different from that of a typical TJ senior. Mentorship students are only on campus for full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Blue Days) for Periods 1-4. On Mondays (Anchor Days), most Mentorship students head to their sites after lunch, and on Wednesdays and Fridays (Red Days) they go directly from home to their off-campus labs. These students take their 5th Period course — typically either AP Government or AP English — online. Those Mentorship students who choose to take their 5th Period class on campus, which include primarily those finishing their study of a world language, leave campus on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after 5th Period.

Landon Chu, TJ ’17, right, with his Mentor, Dr. Joseph Collins of the Naval Research Lab

The sacrifices are significant. For some, the most difficult part is arranging transportation. Students must either be able to drive themselves to and from home to both TJ and their research site, as well as from one to the other, or must have a parent who is able to drive them, or a carpool, or a way to get around via public transportation. On top of these logistical issues, Mentorship students are often unable to participate in sports and clubs, missing out on the culminating year of these activities, including opportunities to hold leadership positions. They miss special 8th period activities and Friday night football games, along with the intangible benefits of spending more time at school, such as the opportunity to talk to teachers between classes and to take care of administrative matters and hang out with friends during lunch and JLC.

Susanna Bradbury, TJ ’17, center, with her Mentors from Georgetown University Medical Center’s Department of Neuroscience, Dr. Maximilian Riesenhuber, left, and Dr. Florence Campana

Thirty-eight seniors participated in TJ’s Mentorship Program this year. Students worked with mentors at area academic and government research labs as well as at several private companies. Institutions hosting the largest number of Mentorship students included: George Mason University (11), Georgetown University (6), National Institutes of Health (4), Naval Research Lab (3), and Children’s National Medical Center (2), with one each at George Washington University, University of Maryland, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Naval Medical Research Center, Department of Commerce, National Museum of Natural History, and private companies ID.me, Classic Homes, Haystax Technology, Invincea Labs, Setty & Associates, and Palantir Technologies.

Projects reflected the breadth of TJ research. Students were affiliated with the following nine Senior Research Labs: Biotechnology, Chemical Analysis, Computer Systems, Engineering Design, Mobile App, Neuroscience, Oceanography, Prototyping, and Robotics.

Prithvi Narayana, TJ ’17, left, with his Naval Research Lab Mentor, Dr. Keith Knipling

TJ’s annual Mentorship Fair gives the school an opportunity to showcase the Mentorship Program and thank the Mentors. Dr. Glazer opened this year’s Fair, held on Wednesday, March 22nd, by recognizing the School Board members in attendance — Ilryong Moon and Dalia Palchik, TJ ’01 — and speaking directly to the Mentors in the audience: “This day is really for you, and I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for our students,” he began. “You are providing the latest, most advanced and innovative opportunities not just for the Mentorship students but for all TJ students because the ideas you share come back to the school.”

Three seniors briefly presented their research findings. Samuel Damashek’s Computer Science project analyzed keystroke data, accelerometer data, and sounds picked up by a microphone to identify the author of a typed smart-phone message. Helen Tran’s Biotechnology project tested the hypothesis that fruit flies raised on a high-sugar diet would die earlier than control flies. Neil Parikh’s Neuroscience project examined possible improvements to chemotherapy drug delivery systems.

Mr. Lampazzi was the last to speak before students and their guests walked from the auditorium to Gym II for the poster session, where they were greeted by a student string quartet and a beautifully presented lunch catered by the PTSA Hospitality Committee. The Mentorship Director told the students that they already had a responsibility to help the next generation of scientists. The Mentors likely had someone who helped them with their careers, he said, and now “your mentors have passed this baton to you. When you get a message from an 18-year-old asking if they can work in your lab, you’re going to say yes. It’s what we do to support science in this country.”

TJ’s Spring Break Ambassadors have their picture taken at Solar City, now owned by Tesla. From left to right, front row: Luca Frix, TJ ’18, Kai Amelung, TJ ’18, Michael Krause, TJ ’18, Elizabeth Hu, TJ ’17; back row, Ankit Agrawal, TJ ’18, Solar City’s Peter Swigert, TJ ’06, Angel Peprah, TJ ’18, Niharika Vattikonda, TJ ’18, Computer Science teacher Ria Galanos, and Tarunikha Sriram, TJ ’18.

Student Ambassadors Visit Bay Area

After overcoming storm delays and flight cancellations that split the group in two, eight TJ students, accompanied by Computer Science teacher Ria Galanos and Partnership Fund Outreach & Partnerships Manager Sally Zabel, met with alumni representatives of several Bay Area companies on TJ’s first-ever Spring Break student ambassador trip, held April 10th-12th. Designed to bring TJ closer to our many alumni on the West Coast, most of whom work in the technology sector, the trip was entirely underwritten by the Partnership Fund.

The response to the TJPF’s trip announcement was overwhelming, with over 100 juniors and seniors submitting applications. Brief profiles of the eight student ambassadors — chosen by a committee made up of TJ faculty and administrators — are below:

Ankit Agrawal, TJ ’18: Editor-in-Chief, tjTODAY; Teaching Coordinator, Policy Debate; Executive Director, GIVE (student-founded non-profit); Neuroscience Lab

Kai Amelung, TJ ’18: Computer Team; summer entrepreneurship program; Web App Club; Varsity Soccer; Mobile & Web App Development Lab

Luca Frix, TJ ’18: Treasurer, Aerospace Initiative; videographer/producer for TJ, TJPF, Class of 2018, SGA; Track & Field; extensive mechanical work outside school; Electronics Lab

Elizabeth Hu, TJ ’17: USA Computing Olympiad; Latin Honor Society; summer research intern; Officer, Inspiring Femgineers (student-founded non-profit); Captain, Policy Debate; Captain, Track & Field; Cheerleading; Computer Systems Lab

Michael Krause, TJ ’18: Software Lead, TJREVERB (satellite); Officer, Technology Student Association; Ultimate Frisbee; soccer referee; Computer Systems Lab

Angel Peprah, TJ ’18: HackTJ organizer; Secretary, Black Student Union; Color Guard; Sirens (all-female a capella group); Astronomy Lab

Tarunikha Sriram, TJ ’18: TJPF intern; Teaching Assistant, Kumon; Engineering Design Lab

Niharika Vattikonda, TJ ’18: Student Representative, Fairfax County School Board (starting July 1); TJ Representative, Fairfax County Human Rights Commission; Publicist, Coding Lady Colonials; Organizer, HackTJ; Model UN; Events Director, Inspiring Femgineers; Mobile & Web App Development Lab

Those who obtained flights immediately after the storm passed were in San Francisco in time for the first scheduled meeting on Monday, April 10th at the offices of Verily Life Sciences LLC, owned by Alphabet (Google). Linus Upson, TJ ’89, VP of Engineering at Verily, talked about his career path — he formerly led the Chrome team at Google —  and answered students’ questions about the Debug project, an effort by a team of scientists and engineers at Verily to breed sterile mosquitoes in hopes of displacing those that spread disease.

With the rest of the group arriving on Monday afternoon, all of the student ambassadors spent Tuesday in San Francisco, where they visited four different offices before attending the (sixth annual) Bay Area TJ Alumni Reception, hosted by Thumbtack. They began their day at Uber, where software engineer Edwin Zhang, TJ ’10, and David DyTang, TJ ’08, Manager, Marketplace Risk, answered questions about their experiences since graduating from TJ, their specific projects at the company, and how coding in the workplace differs from what is taught in Computer Science courses.

Ambassadors pose in front of Robinhood’s “Welcome to Sherwood Forest” sign with founder Vlad Tenev, TJ ’04, far right. At front left is TJ Partnership Fund Outreach & Partnerships Manager Sally Zabel.

At Asana, Inc., developers of a mobile/web project tracking tool, the group had a tour, a Q&A session with product engineer/manager Rachel Miller, TJ ’05, Lili Jiang, TJ ’07, and Chinmay Patwardhan, TJ ’11, followed by lunch. Elizabeth Hu, the only senior in the group, commented: “During the Q&A session with TJ alumni, I was surprised by the spectrum of careers that could eventually meet together in one place. Alumni who followed a variety of paths in diverse fields shared this same space as product managers, engineers, and recruiters.”

Their first meeting of the afternoon was with Peter Swigert, TJ ’06, a program manager in data analytics at Solar City Corp., the country’s largest provider of solar power, now owned by Tesla. Swigert introduced some employees to the students. “It was intriguing to hear each individual’s role in a larger company’s ecosystem,” Elizabeth said.

The group ended the day at Thumbtack, where co-founder Sander Daniels, TJ ’01, presented the company’s history, including the importance of the TJ community in its founding and development, and introduced the group to the company’s large alumni contingent. Ankit Agrawal, TJ ’18, said, “With all the alumni, we were able to hear about a variety of perspectives and past experiences, while also answering questions they had about TJ.”

At 6:30pm, the student ambassadors were joined by dozens of alumni from around the region as they converged on Thumbtack for the annual Bay Area Meet-up. (Daniels was the first alum to host what has grown into a network of regional alumni events around the country. See August 2015 and May 2013 issues.) “Because of the event, we were able to meet with a lot of alumni from around the region,” Ankit continued, “and even got a surprise tour of the Twitter office in the same building.”

On Wednesday, the group headed south to Silicon Valley, where they met with Vlad Tenev, TJ ’04, co-founder of Robinhood, a firm that offers commission-free stock trading, who gave them an informal tour of his firm’s intimate Palo Alto office space. Robinhood was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal (see also March 2016 issue).

The group stands in front of one of Google’s self-driving cars with Brian Levinstein, TJ ’10, far left, and Mike Montemerlo, TJ ’93, center.

At Google Inc’s main campus in nearby Mountain View, the group sat for a presentation, enjoyed lunch at the famous cafeteria, and stopped by the Visitor Center, Android Garden, and Google store. Software engineer Brian Levinstein, TJ ’10, talked about his work on Google Express, a rapid-delivery service, and Mike Montemerlo, TJ ’93, an engineer on the company’s self-driving car project, discussed his work (see also May/June 2014 issue).

Because no Bay Area visit would be complete without a visit to Apple Inc., the ambassadors stopped in Cupertino on their way back to the San Francisco airport, where they met outside the building with engineering manager Adele Peterson, TJ ’99. Peterson spoke about the products that she’s worked on and highlighted the company’s creative atmosphere.

Ankit was particularly struck by the varied backgrounds of the tech company alums: “Vlad Tenev from Robinhood, for example, told us how he did NIH internships and took biology courses in high school, and discussed his transition from that to the tech world. . . . This was particularly eye-opening for me. It allowed me to recognize the multitude of opportunities there are outside of high school, and how what you do in high school doesn’t have to entirely confine you to what you do in college and beyond.”

Michael Krause, TJ ’18, echoed Ankit’s surprise at the fact that the Bay Area alums did not all start out interested in Computer Science. While pointing out that the entire trip, the Thumbtack reception in particular, was an “invaluable networking opportunity,” for the students, he noted that the information-sharing went both ways: “All alumni were curious about what we were working on for our Senior Research projects  . . . and [interested in] our stories about the TJ experience,” he said.

Elizabeth summed up her impressions this way: “I realize now that there is no one way to reach ‘the dream job’ . . .  but the common point of each alum’s journey was its starting point at TJ. The alums provided invaluable advice on how to make the most out of your time at TJ, where many of them met some of the greatest individuals with whom they are still in touch today. The nurturing environment at TJ for creativity, friendships, and the scientific thought process is something that they have carried with them their entire lives.”