Austin, Texas—This month, six students from the Austin Independent School District will join more than 1,500 young science and engineering enthusiasts from across the globe at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science competition.

The students representing AISD at the competition, with projects covering diverse topics, including engineering, microbiology, and cellular and molecular biology, are:

• Advaith Anand
  11^th grader, Liberal Arts and Science Academy
  “Natural Gas Separation Using Thermally Rearranged Polymers—Characterizing Morphological Changes of HAB-6FDA Polymide Structures”

• Vanna Hovanky
  11^th grader, Bowie High School
  “Bacterial 6-galactosidase Enzyme-Prodrug Therapy: A New Approach Against Colon Cancer”

• Alexander Crisara and Alexander “Jahan” Rabii
  12^th and 11^th graders, respectively, Anderson High School
  “Efficient Algae-based Life Support for Long Duration Space Flight”

• Jessica Wang and Lily Xu
  11^th and 10^th graders, respectively, Liberal Arts and Science Academy
  “On the Connectivity of Sequential Formal Languages with Applications to Genomic Sequence”

The students researched for more than a year to prepare for the elite competition, which awards nearly $4 million in scholarships and grant funding to the most notable and promising entries.

“I’m excited to meet people from across the nation—and to see other people’s projects and be blown away by what they can do,” Jessica Wang, a junior at LASA, said.

Each of the students qualified for the international competition by earning “Best of Fair” accolades at either the regional or state level.

For more information about the students and their projects, visit www.austinisd.org/sciencefair