Sigma Xi, the science research honor society, visited the University of Florida Feb. 4-6 to compete at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
In order to be eligible for the competition students were chosen weeks before the conference on the basis of their research paper. From Heritage, six students were selected: sophomores Nicholas Kwok and Mikaella Mishiev and juniors Scott Shin, Hanna Zhang, Calvin Mathew and Likhitha Selvan. Kwok, Mathew and Selvan competed in speaker presentations while Zhang, Shin and Mishiev competed with poster presentations.
As for the rest of the Sigma Xi clan, all 26 students spent their time at the Reitz Union game room in between Keynote speakers, student presentations and lab tours. On the first day, students listened to Dr. Robert Ferl, a Distinguished Professor in Horticulture at the University of Florida, explain his work exploring plant growth in space.
The second day, competitors set up their presentations bright and early to compete until 3 p.m. Later, Dr. Gareth Fraser, an Associate Professor in Biology at UF, presented his years of research studying shark teeth and its contribution to human genomics. To wind down and blow off some competition stress, the Biomedical Engineering Band, made up of four students and one professor, played some jazzy tunes for the audience. After, students either enjoyed bowling in the Gameroom or belting out Bruno Mars at karaoke.
Finally, on the last day, students toured various science labs at UF, from those studying intersections between language and behavioral science to mass spectrometry.
Here are the awards:
National Recognition (will be competing at the national symposium May 1-4):
1st Place Poster – Mikaella Mishiev, 10
2nd Place Speaker – Calvin Mathew, 11
Regional Recognition:
Top 6 Poster – Scott Shin, 11
Top 9 Speaker – Likhitha Selvan, 11
