By Carolyn Doyle
More than 100 elementary, middle, and high school students from Indiana and elsewhere competed for scholarships and prizes in virtual competitions organized by the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indianapolis.
The competitive challenges this past fall and winter were in biomedical informatics (open to high school students), and computer science (with categories for students in elementary through high school). Both were conducted online.
“The goal of these challenges is to connect students with Luddy when they are still in K-12 and to introduce them to new concepts, careers in the field, and degree options,” says Alyssa Graves, Assistant Program Director of Undergraduate Recruitment at the Luddy School.
Challenge competitions usually consist of a problem case or question that challenges the student’s thinking about a particular area of study, often unknown to them. Participants research, form, and present a solution. Most of the entries for the Luddy Indianapolis biomedical informatics and computer science challenges came from Indiana high schools.
Biomedical Informatics
The Biomedical Informatics Challenge, which ran September 12-October 22, 2023, was open to high school students, and drew more than a hundred participants. It was sponsored in part by the student-run Biomedical Informatics Club. The B.S. in Biomedical Informatics is offered through the Luddy Indianapolis Department of BioHealth Informatics.
“Particularly for biomedical informatics, these challenges can allow students to get familiar with a brand-new concept that they might not have ever heard of,” Graves said.
For the challenge, high school students had to respond to these questions and cite their sources:
- How can biomedical informatics shape our future?
- What problems can it solve?
- How can it be used to help people?
- How will the field of biomedical informatics change over time?
Students could submit a 1-2-page paper, pamphlet, or poster, 2-5-minute video, or a 5-10 slide PowerPoint. Alexander Krohannon, M.S., biomedical informatics program director at Luddy Indianapolis, judged the submissions. Entries were evaluated based on demonstrating an understanding of the topic; visual and aesthetic clarity; creativity and impact; and sources cited.
“I learned a lot about the different routes biomedical informatics can go in the future and all the positive things it can do for our community and its people,” said first-place biomedical informatics winner A’Maryi Stevenson, of Penn High School.
One of the third-place winners, Akshansh Nandan of Zionsville Community High School, noted, “I had never heard of Biomedical Informatics, so I thought it would be interesting to do some research and learn about it. That’s why I decided to compete in the challenge.
“A field that’s not commonly talked about turned out to be very interesting and important. I learned how it can help create vaccines faster, intervene against global pandemics quicker, and help the overall population be healthier and live a longer life.”
In fact, Nandan said, “After high school I want to go into college in a STEM field. I was thinking about engineering. But now biomedical informatics seems interesting to me and is definitely on my list of possible majors or job fields.”
Computer Science
The Luddy Indianapolis Computer Science Challenge, which ran October 15, 2023 – January 15, 2024, offered K-12 students the opportunity to show what they could accomplish in applying computer science on a topic of interest to them.
Students were challenged to submit a website, web/mobile app, or a software program of their choice and topic. They were required to submit their source code, a short PowerPoint presentation about the project, and a video of no more than 2 minutes explaining how the project worked.
“I have been impressed by all the submissions!” Graves said. “The CS Challenge submissions showed me that children are getting more and more expertise in computer science before they enter college. It makes me excited to see how each field develops!”
There were three divisions: elementary, middle and high school. Students could work individually or in teams of up to three people, with prizes awarded individually.
Thirty-four students submitted entries, which were judged on functionality, creativity, code quality, user interface, scalability, presentation, use of data structure and algorithms, robustness and security, and how well they could handle unexpected errors without crashing. Yuni Xia, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Luddy Indianapolis Department of Computer Science, and other members of the department reviewed the entries.
The winners
Biomedical Informatics
1st Place
A’Maryi Stevenson, Penn High School: $1,000 scholarship and $100 cash
2nd Place
Minh Huynh, Bloomington High School South: $750 scholarship and $75
3rd Place
Akshansh Nandan and Anwesha Mishra, Zionsville Community High School: each received a $500 scholarship and $50
Honorable Mention
Daemon Hyink and Jackson Mead, Penn High School: each received $25
Computer Science Challenge
Gold Medals – $1,000 scholarship and $300 Amazon gift card each
- Jehanna Fisher, Francis Joseph Reitz High School
- Rosalina Shoemaker, Fort Recovery High School, Ohio
Silver Medals – $750 scholarship and $200 Amazon gift card each
- Grant Coburn & Imooluwa Ayoola-Ladapo, Warren Central High School
- Colin Ding, Tenakill Middle School, New Jersey
- Jules Thierry Fagard & Kennan Hunter, Bloomington High School South
- Fanuel, Sandford International School, Ethiopia
- Arnay Garhyan, Park Tudor High School
- Ritvik Indupuri, Carmel High School
- Conner Laystrom, Avon Middle School North
- Alston Lin, Center Grove High School
- Garrett Park, Homestead Senior High School
- Boris Perez, Pike High School
- Xavier Schrage, Holy Redeemer School
- Annabelle White, Whiteland Community High School
- Kevin Xia, Walt Whitman High School
Bronze Medals – $500 scholarship $100 Amazon gift card each
- Harshil Gandhi, Columbus North High School
- Sarah Ji, Frank R Conwell Middle School
- Deborah Li, Covenant Christian High School
- Kai Shoaff, Northwestern High School
- Jacob Yuan, Yorktown Elementary School
- Thomas Zhao, Eleanor Roosevelt High School
Honorable Mentions – $50 Amazon gift card each
- Seojin Kim & Suhas Voolla, Round Rock High School
- Eason Lin, Yorktown Elementary School
- Tirth Patel, Prospect High School
- Bhavana Rupakula, Carmel High School
- Grant Zou, East Middle School
Scholarships are awarded to current high school students only, when admitted and enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program at IU’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in Indianapolis. Scholarships and prizes are awarded per individual student on each team.
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