Three La Jolla students took home first-place awards for their projects as hundreds of winners from regional competitions around the state convened last month for the 74th annual California Science and Engineering Fair.
The competition April 12-13 at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks featured 881 participants from 351 schools who presented 701 projects in search of awards totaling $30,000.
Seventh-graders Eva Monpays and Julianna Swigart from San Diego French American School in La Jolla won first place in the junior division of the category Environmental Engineering: Pollution.
Kayley Xu, a 10th-grader at La Jolla’s The Bishop’s School, won in the senior division of Computational Systems: Medical.
“Before winter break, we were like ‘I don’t know if we’re going to make the Greater San Diego Science [& Engineering] Fair” in March at Balboa Park, Julianna said. “And then we were surprised we got first in San Diego. But we were like ‘There’s no way we’re going to place [in the California competition].’ And then we got first.”
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Kayley said she “wasn’t expecting to get first because I was in that room with all the other projects in my category and they all looked super cool … amazing and interesting.”
Robotic solution to trash pickup
Eva and Julianna, friends and project partners since fourth grade, formed the idea for a beach-cleaning robot in September and got to work on it in November.
They were first required to make a project for a school science fair and were encouraged by science teacher Alex Mobley to enter it in the Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair.
Their handmade robot sifts through sand with paddles that brush sand onto vibrating mesh, Julianna said. As the robot makes its way along the beach, sand falls back onto the surface while trash slowly moves up to the collection compartment.
The project, Eva said, demonstrates their dedication to sustainability. Most of its pieces are reusable, and everything was built from scratch rather than a kit.
Mobley said she was impressed by Eva and Julianna’s determination to improve the project through test trials, one of which required a change in the robot’s sifting mechanism.
“They really did improve their design and they want to continue to improve it to where it can be more easily built, easily accessible [and] cheaper,” Mobley said. “They’re already thinking of ways that other people their age can design one, create one and use it.”
Both girls cited perseverance as a characteristic that helped them succeed.
“When it doesn’t work, you can’t stop there,” Eva said. “You have to continue trying and remaking another solution, because things usually never work by one solution.”
Julianna added that embracing challenges helps them get positive results.
Their next step will be entering the Thermo Fisher Scientific Juniors Innovators Challenge, a national online competition for students in grades 6-8 featuring prizes of up to $25,000, scientific excursions and cash awards for finalists’ teachers and schools.
Just being invited to apply for the competition is “a huge opportunity,” Eva said.
A more modern, sensitive stethoscope
Kayley’s project applies the principles of beamforming — a radio frequency management technique — and artificial intelligence technology to modernize a wearable stethoscope.
Her personal health journey sparked an interest in the technology of auscultation, a medical examination technique assessing body sounds using a stethoscope.
Kayley had a severe case of pneumonia when she was 13 and was hospitalized for a week and required oxygen . Throughout that experience, she said, she saw the limits of auscultation and respiratory diagnostics.
“Traditional auscultation methods face limitations like a lack of spatial perception, only being able to listen to one site at a time, and susceptibility to interference,” Kayley said. “My project aims to address these issues.
“The system is able to pinpoint the exact location from where an abnormal lung or heart sound came from, which helps guide diagnosis and treatment. And [it can] suppress sound interference based on its direction, which enables doctors to focus on sounds of interest.”
This wasn’t Kayley’s first time at the California Science and Engineering Fair, but it was her most successful to date. She received a third-place award in 2023, honorable mentions in 2022 and 2024 and fourth place in 2021. Overall, she has been a science fair competitor since she was in sixth grade.
“It was super cool that it was in person because, similar to the San Diego fair, all the projects and booths were set up in rows,” she said. “So I had a chance to talk to fellow student researchers and learn about their projects.”
Marcus Jaiclin, Kayley’s faculty adviser, said she is a persistent and hard-working student. Having known her for several years, he was struck by her willingness to learn new things and face challenges.
“I’m always looking for ways for students to take what they’re learning in the classroom and turn it into something in the real world,” Jaiclin said.
Kayley is a strong advocate for science fairs as a way to introduce young students to scientific exploration and research. She proposed last year that The Bishop’s School adopt a middle school elective class dedicated to developing science fair projects.
The course, “Exploring STEM: Science Fair Project Development,” was formalized and now provides resources and guidance for students in grades 6-8 to work through their ideas and inventions. “Exploring STEM” is taught by Kayley, teacher Kelly Kleinertz and other high school students.
Seven students from the course participated in the Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair, a development Kayley described as “really inspiring.” All of that group received first- and second-place awards. ♦
