2021 Annual Report: Broadcom MASTERS

Annual Report 2021

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2021 Annual Report: Broadcom MASTERS

In 2021, the Broadcom MASTERS took place virtually for a second year, with students competing in team challenges online. The finalists analyzed biodiversity in their local communities, designed clinical trials, constructed gliders and developed functional programs using Raspberry Pis.

Akilan Sankaran from Albuquerque, N.M., won the top $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize. Akilan is the first student in the competition’s 11-year history to take home the top award for a math project.. Camellia Sharma of Henrico, Va., won the $10,000 DoD STEM Talent Award; Prisha Shroff of Chandler, Ariz., won the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention; Josephine E. Schultz of San Antonio, Texas, won the $10,000 Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation; and Ryka C. Chopra of Fremont, Calif., won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement.

Read About the Winners

From a program that can calculate highly divisible numbers to an AI-based wildfire prevention system, learn about the winning projects from the 2021 Broadcom MASTERS.

Read the Press Release

Read the Press Release

What the Finalists Are Saying

“My favorite part of finals week was team building. Seeing how other young scientists’ brains worked was really amazing, and I really appreciated the opportunity of collaborating with them, just as professional scientists do!”

Anneliese Hsiao

What the Finalists Are Saying

“The team challenges and the Event Farm Public Showcase were both super fun. Every finalist was very easy to socialize with, and I remember laughing until my stomach hurt. It was just an amazing experience!”

Judy Bai

Meet Akilan Sankaran, Winner of the Samueli Foundation Prize

Akilan wrote a computer program that can calculate highly divisible numbers, sometimes called antiprime numbers, that are over 1,000 digits long. He created a new class of functions — the smooth class — to measure a number’s divisibility.

Meet Camellia Sharma, Winner of the DoD STEM Talent Award

Camellia built a 3D-printed aerial drone/boat that can fly to a location, land on the water and take underwater photos. Her software can then count the fish living there.

Meet Prisha Shroff, Winner of the Lemelson Award for Invention

Prisha developed an AI-based wildfire prevention system that uses satellite and meteorological data to identify fire-prone locations and deploy drones there.

Meet Josephine E. Schultz, Winner of the Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation

Josephine studied painted lady butterflies and found that changes in light patterns can affect their emergence from their chrysalises by up to two days.

Meet Ryka C. Chopra, Winner of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award

Ryka geocoded the locations of fast-food restaurants to see if they are built near populations of obese people, perhaps contributing to the obesity cycle.

Broadcom MASTERS 2021 Highlights

Meet the finalists and relive some of the top moments from the 2021 Broadcom MASTERS.

CELEBRATING SCIENTIFIC TALENT

REGENERON STS

For the second time in its 80-year history, the Regeneron Science Talent Search was held virtually in order to keep finalists and their families safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The winners were selected from 1,760 applications received from 611 high schools across 45 states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and 10 countries.

REGENERON ISEF

Nearly 2,000 young scientists, engineers and innovators from 49 states and 64 countries participated in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair’s first virtual competition. Finalists participated in virtual judging, watched streamed programming and had fun in a virtual world created just for them.

Return to the 2021 Annual Report