Broadcom MASTERS Awards

Winners Include:

The Samueli Foundation Prize: $25,000

Ishana Kumar, Color Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Retinal Fatigue on Imaginary Fechner Colors

DoD STEM Talent Award: $10,000

Charlotte Lenore Simon Michaluk, Simulating Slipping Snails: Mitigating Climate Change and Oceanborne Invasive Species Transport with Biomimicry

Lemelson Award for Invention: $10,000

Julian Olschwang, Talk to the Hand

Marconi/Samueli Award for Innovation: $10,000

Kai Vernooy, Hacking the Election: Measuring and Solving Gerrymandering in Today's Political System

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement: $10,000

Zoe Weissman, Testing Phytochemicals for Antinociceptive Properties in Both Female and Male Drosophila melanogaster in Order to Discover a Natural Painkiller and Reduce Bias in the Drug Industry

STEM Award Winners:

First and second place winners of STEM Awards demonstrated acumen and promise in science, technology, engineering and math. First place winners were awarded $3,500 and second place winners receive $2,500 to support his or her choice of a STEM summer camp experience in the U.S. Top awards in math were sponsored by Robert John Floe, President, Floe Financial Partners.

Science Award:

• First place: Logan Silvea, Correlation Between Interocular Signal Delay and Luminosity, Measured Through the Perceived Intensity of the Pulfrich Effect, Noting the Impact of Ocular Dominance (2 Year Study – Psychological Adaptations and Optical Illusions)


• Second place: Madilyne Kay Beaudry, Bioplastic Development; Yielding Lactic Acid Using Compost

Technology Award:

• First place: Amelia Belle Curran, Comparing the Efficiency, Free Fatty Acid Percentage, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Waste Vegetable Oil and Ethiopian Mustard (Brassica carinata) Biodiesels


• Second place: Pauline Victoria Allasas Estrada, Real-Time Detection of Drought Stress in Plants Using a Custom-Built Infrared Sensing Rover

Engineering Award:

• First place: Anita Gaenko, Not All That Is Yellow Is Turmeric: Designing Analytical Chemistry Methods and Photometric Circuitry to Detect Lead Chromate Adulteration of Turmeric


• Second place: JT Mulvihill, Designing a Football Helmet Lining and Coating for Maximum Rotational and Linear Impact Force Reduction

Mathematics Award:

• First place: Sina Sean Kassayan, Biometric Authentication in a Heartbeat: An Artificial Intelligence Deep Learning-Based Heart Sound Authentication System


• Second place: Joshua W. Cox, Lift Off! Finding Rockets Using Sound Waves

Rising Star Awards:

In recognition of their promise as two of the youngest competitors, two Rising Stars win the opportunity to represent the United States as a delegate to Broadcom MASTERS International and participate as special observers to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world's largest international high school science fair competition.

• Lucas Katz, A Spherical Omnidirectional Motor for Electric Vehicles


• Snigtha Mohanraj, Effectiveness of the Organic Polymers for Removing Microplastic in an Aqueous Solution

Team Award: Each member of the team that best demonstrates their ability to work together and solve problems through shared decision making, communication and scientific and engineering collaboration will receive a gift card to a science supply company to support their interests in STEM.

Silver Team – Ishan Ahluwalia, Vivaana Haval, Kai Vernooy, Abhijeet Ghosh and Charlotte Lenore Simon Michaluk

Broadcom Leadership Award:

The Broadcom Leadership Award is bestowed upon the Broadcom MASTERS finalist elected by his or her peers to speak on behalf of their class at the Awards Ceremony. The Class Speaker demonstrates the collegiality and spirited leadership that has earned the collective esteem of the class throughout the Broadcom MASTERS competition and united them around common goals.

• Agastya Sridharan, Quantifying the Impact of Search-Order Bias on Voting Preferences Using a Simulated Web Environment