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.
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.
The 2023 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge
Press Release
Awards Ceremony Video
Top 300 Junior Innovators
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
ASCEND Award
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.