2023 Annual Report Banner - New Directions

Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

In the inaugural year of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (formerly the Broadcom MASTERS), we welcomed 30 of the brightest middle school researchers to Washington, D.C., for a week of STEM exploration and celebration. The finalists were selected from a pool of more than 1,800 applicants, and they collectively received over $100,000 in awards and prizes. Throughout the week, the finalists were immersed in team-based STEM challenges, such as building submersible cameras to document biodiversity in the Chesapeake Bay and using their coding skills to design mini-golf holes with technological bells and whistles.

 

Collage of six photos from the 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

Shanya Gill of San José, California, won the top $25,000 ASCEND Award for her leadership and critical-thinking skills, as well as her research project, a fire detection system. Keshvee Sekhda of Sugar Hill, Georgia, won the $10,000 Broadcom Coding with CommitmentTM Award; Maya Gandhi of Anaheim, California, won the $10,000 DoD STEM Talent Award; Adyant Bhavsar of San José, California, won the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention; and Elizabeth (Ellie Lou) Olvera of Goleta, California, won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement.

2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge 2023 Top Award Winners

The 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

Press Release

Awards Ceremony Video

Top 300 Junior Innovators

Group photo of Thermo Fisher JIC finalists at the 2023 Public Exhibition of Projects

TOP MOMENTS

Thermo Fisher JIC 2023 Highlights

From unique STEM challenges and fun moments throughout the week to the awards ceremony, take a look at the 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge in our highlights video.

TOP WINNERS

Shanya Gill won the $25,000 ASCEND Award for her project designing a fire detection system as well as her leadership, collaboration and critical thinking-skills.

Keshvee Sekhda
Broadcom Coding with CommitmentTM Award

Keshvee Sekhda won the $10,000 Broadcom Coding with CommitmentTM Award for developing a smartphone app called IdentiCan to identify breast, lung and skin cancer. It uses photos or health scans, sound clips and personal health information to predict diagnoses.

Maya Gandhi
DoD STEM Talent Award

Maya Gandhi won the $10,000 DoD STEM Talent Award for her project exploring different substances to boost energy output of plant microbial fuel cells, which generate electricity using living plants and microbes.

Adyant Bhavsar
Lemelson Award for Invention

Adyant Bhavsar won the $10,000 Lemelson Award for Invention for creating a low-cost, eco-friendly version of a triboelectric nanogenerator, which generates electricity from the mechanical energy of two touching objects when they separate.

Elizabeth Olvera
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement

Elizabeth (Ellie Lou) Olvera won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement for her project, which identified an eco-friendly fabric suitable for creating affordable and reusable menstrual pads.

SOCIETY BLOG

Navigating Zombies: A health challenge for Thermo Fisher JIC finalists

In a Halloween-themed challenge organized by JASON Learning, finalists strategized how to identify and contain a fictional zombie virus.

In their first challenge, Junior Innovators explore biodiversity

At the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the finalists were challenged to design and build small rigs that could be submerged in the Chesapeake Bay to capture videos of biodiversity around oyster reefs.

Thermo Fisher JIC finalists build and code interactive mini-golf courses at the KID Museum

The finalists visited KID Museum in Bethesda, Maryland, where they were tasked with building one-hole miniature golf courses using engineering and coding skills.