2026 Fair Results

Held at Corwin Pavilion, UCSB on March 13, the Fair hosted 62 students from 6 schools.

Sweepstakes (Best in Fair)

Lixin Peng - Rapid 14-Minute Detection: Development and Application of a Portable Nucleic Acid Rapid Testing Device for Primary Care

Best Senior Project

Kaitlyn Dai - Designing a Biguanide-Linked PROTAC for Targeted Degradation of the Androgen Receptor in Prostate Cancer

Best Junior Project

Michelle Zou - Scavenging Microplastics

First In Division:

Junior Biochemistry, Microbiology & Pharmacology - Aryan Naik, "Protecting Cells from UV Damage"

Junior Biology and Behavioral Sciences - Tralynh Trinh, "Hydrogels: A Transformative Technology of Agriculture"

Junior Engineering - Leo Liu, "Getting to the Bottom of It: The Effect of Different Foundations on Resistance to Superstructure Collapse"

Junior Environmental Science and Toxicology - Michelle Zou, "Scavenging Microplastics"

Junior Life Science - Apoorva Arul Kumar, "Holey Membranes"

Junior Physical Science and Engineering - Aarnav Sharma "The Piezoelectric Phenomenon: The Effect of Disk Angle on Piezoelectric Voltage Output"

Junior Physics, Chemistry and Material Science - Iris Peng "Eco-friendly Solutions For Microplastic Removal"

Medalists - Gold, Silver and Bronze

After being judged in the morning, students toured laboratories involved with a variety of interesting topics such as field research at the Lagoon, the use of sediments in climate science, the use of machine learning to combat diseases, learning and training neural networks, the Augmented Reality Lab, and the COMPASS group's study of regenerative medicine. Special thanks go to Professor de Tomaso and UCSB students Megan Rodriguez, Apurv Varshney, Mable Zhou, Chris Berry, Ashley Coventry, Marianna Karagiannis, Louisa Cornelis, Daniel H, and to Science Fair Vice President Nari Miller for organizing all the activities.