(March 6, 2018–) Four High Tech students attended the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), hosted by Rutgers University School of Engineering and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army, Navy, and Air Force, announced Dr. Joseph Giammarella, principal of High Tech.
The Northern New Jersey Regional Symposium of JSHS, in which High Tech participates, serves as one of 48 symposia, where original experimentation in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics at the high school level shine best through poster presentations.
Judges chose four outstanding High Tech Biomedical Science projects for competition in the symposium. Sarah Bacha, a North Bergen resident, presented her research via her poster depicting “Conditioning of Mus musculus to Overcome Innate Behavior.” Bayonne’s Reika Hayashi offered her poster on “Examination of Pathogenic Bacterial Biofilm Attachment on Soft Contact Lenses.” Furthermore, Veeraj Shah of North Bergen conducted his experiment, “Determining the Optimal Fibrous Scaffold for the Formation of a Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessel with Endothelial Cells,” at Stevens University, offering a poster at the symposium, too.
One High Tech participant, Secaucus resident Mahek Virani, represented High Tech in the Oral Presentation Session. Mahek conducted her research on “Road Rage Reduction: Effects of Driving Experience When AMTAM is Utilized.” Her experiment consisted of testing a device, known as “AMTAM,” an RGB LED Matrix board preprogrammed with phrases like “Sorry,” “New Driver,” and “Emergency.” The AMTAM promotes human to human communication and prevents feelings of aggression that can lead to road rage on highways. Her results suggest that younger drivers benefited the most from the device, since their feelings of aggression reduced by more than 50% than other groups studied in the sample.
Virani won Second Place for Oral Presenter and will not only receive a $1,500 scholarship, but she will again represent High Tech on an expenses-paid trip to JSHS nationals in Hunt Valley, Maryland, from May 2nd-5th. There, she will compete for up to $12,000 in scholarships.
 |
| Mahek Virani |
 |
| Veeraj Shah |
 |
| Reika Hayashi |
 |
| Sarah Bacha |
