Adam Kovalčík, 19, of Dulovce, Slovakia, won first place and received the $100,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award, named in honor of Regeneron’s president and chief scientific officer,  for his new way of making the antiviral drug galidesivir. This medicine stops viruses from copying their genes, controlling infections. Starting with cheap materials from corn husk waste, he designed a shorter, more efficient way of making galidesivir. He cut the process from 15 to 10 steps, and made almost twice as much drug in less time. His new way to make these medicines can greatly decrease their cost, from $75/gram to about $12.50/gram. He then used these reactions to create a new antiviral drug that may work even better than galidesivir. His work may make these medicines more accessible and give us more options to treat viral infections.

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Benjamin Davis, 16, of Wrentham, Massachusetts, won second place and received the $75,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award for creating a desktop plastic recycling system. The user-friendly system can recycle 3D printer waste and other plastics. It turns them into filaments for 3D printing. Up to 67% of the filament used in a typical 3D printing project may end up as waste. Using electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering methods, Benjamin combined pultrusion (push-through) and extrusion (pull-through) processes. Together, this made the process about 45% more efficient. His device is faster than other home recyclers and creates a higher quality product. Its easy operation means nontechnical users can recycle and 3D print more efficiently. His design is an effective recycling machine that costs 90% less than commercial options.

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Siyaa R. Poddar, 16, of Chandler, Arizona, received the $75,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award for her device, which rapidly detects toxic dusts. In the U.S. Southwest, toxic silica and uranium dusts from abandoned mines are a public health challenge. They contaminate the soil, air and groundwater, and can trigger autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s syndrome. Rates of Sjögren’s syndrome are disproportionately high on Indigenous reservations in the Southwest, where many abandoned mines remain. Currently, there’s no easy, fast or affordable way to measure how much of these toxins are in the air. Siyaa designed two low-cost detectors using chemicals that easily react with uranium or silica by changing color. She trapped these chemicals in a framework made of metal atoms and organic molecules to stabilize them. Her system is an affordable, easy-to-use way to monitor air quality.

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Samuel Skotnikov, 17, of Highland Village, Texas, and Chanyoung Kim and Eeshaan Prashanth, both 16, of Flower Mound, Texas, received the $50,000 Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations for creating a brain-controlled bionic prosthetic leg. Current robotic limbs are expensive and can make movements feel unnatural. The team started by measuring the walking motion of their classmate, Aiden, with his usual prosthetic leg. They saw that the prosthetic’s stiffness forced the remaining part of his amputated leg to work much harder than his other leg. They designed their prosthetic leg, Neuroflex, to read the wearer’s brain signals through an EEG headband. The signals tell Neuroflex how the wearer wants to move, and Neuroflex uses its motors to support that movement. They also designed an ankle with more realistic joints. When the team tested their prototype on Aiden, it guessed the right movement 98% of the time. Their adaptable model could also relieve some of the cost burden of prosthetic limbs.

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XinYan Chen, 17, of San Gabriel, California, received the $10,000 Craig R. Barrett Award for Innovation for her mobile indoor formaldehyde detector. Formaldehyde is a chemical found in many household goods that can cause disease, including cancer. Other detectors work by either trapping chemicals until they are full, or by breaking them down with expensive materials. XinYan designed a low-cost material that breaks down formaldehyde into carbon dioxide and water. She used the material to build a device that measures and destroys the poison at the same time. Her device lowered the amount of formaldehyde in a closed box by almost 90% in 18 hours. XinYan’s device makes it cheaper and easier to both measure and improve indoor air quality.

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Aleksandra Petkova, 18, of Sofia, Bulgaria, received the $10,000 H. Robert Horvitz Prize for Fundamental Researchfor her research on the relationship between a boat’s speed and the shape of its wake. When a boat travels faster than the waves it makes in the water, it makes a narrower wake. This type of wake creates more drag on the boat, which slows it down. Aleksandra looked at aerial photos of wakes and tested wake angles using a remote-controlled boat and a yacht. She figured out how to use a ship’s size to predict the speed it can travel before it starts leaving a narrow wake. Aleksandra’s ship wake model could help ship operators minimize drag by traveling at the ideal speeds for their ships.

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Cory Seelenfreund, 17, of New Rochelle, New York, received the $10,000 Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication for his study of the relevance of memory in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic game theory problem where two people accused of a crime decide whether to snitch or stay silent. Cory created computer simulations and mathematical models to test how selfishness and memory affect the game. Memory of just one game often improved results, but players with better memory won in more complex scenarios. He found the best outcomes when players had a variety of self-interested and altruistic behaviors. These findings can help design smarter AI bots and other programs that need to “get along” with humans.

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Uma Sthanu, 17, of Austin, Texas, received the $10,000 Mary Sue Coleman Award for Life Science Innovation & Impact for her research on regenerating nerve cells. The neurons making up the human brain are powerful but fragile. Disease and injury can damage neurons and scientists have not yet found a way to regrow them. Uma studied the effects of an important hormone-like compound called PGE2 on damaged brain cells. She used advanced techniques to study how PGE2 treatment affects these broken neurons in the lab. She hopes this work will help researchers find better treatments for brain diseases and traumatic brain injuries.

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