Jamaica students compete in STEM Tech Competition
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Two student finalists from
Queens High School for the
Sciences at York College in
Jamaica are preparing to
compete for the first time in
the eighth-annual Spellman
High Voltage Electronics
Clean Tech Competition
in July.
New for 2019, the
competition has expanded
from 10 to 20 finalists with the
introduction of two categories:
Mitigating the Effects of
Climate Change and Resource
Preservation. Capitalizing
on this year’s competition
theme, “Toward a Greener
Tomorrow” that focuses on
changing the course of the
environmental future, Shreya
Kaveti and Yashaswi Manneru
will present their project to
judges offering a solution to
a specific issue relating to
protecting resources using
clean technology.
Kaveti and Manneru —
both sophomores at Queens
High School for the Sciences
at York College, located
at 94-50 159th St. — will
compete with other student
finalists from California,
Colorado, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, as well as from
abroad representing China,
Singapore, the Philippines
and Zimbabwe.
The students were selected
from more than 500 entries
among nearly 1,200 registrants
from 40 countries. The teams
will vie for $60k in monetary
prizes at the competition
finals, which will take place
July 17 at New York City’s
Cooper Union, located at 30
Cooper Square.
“It was actually really
surprising to find out
we got in,” said Kaveti,
speaking on behalf of her
partner who wasn’t present
for the interview. “We are
definitely honored to be
apart of it and to share our
thoughts in showing a way
that we can have a solution
to the issue was definitely a
big accomplishment.”
Kaveti and Manneru’s
project focuses on the effect
of extracting lignin-like
compounds from chlorella
green algae and oscillatoria
blue-green algae on the
production of an eco-friendly
Shreya Kaveti and Yashaswi Manneru (not pictured) extracting
lignin-like compounds from cyanobacteria.
Photo courtesy of Shanaz Baksh
paper source.
After researching and
reading through journal
articles, Kaveti and Manneru
became interested in finding
an alternative to making
paper to stop deforestation
and reduce the cutting down
of trees.
“In our research, we actually
found out that recycling paper
is not as effective as people
may portray it to be, so instead
of making recycled paper and
getting toxic lignans from
that we were thinking about
just finding a different way of
making paper,” said Kaveti.
“With blue-green algae it’s
actually very vastly found and
can easily be grown, but it can
be toxic sometimes because
when it’s decaying it releases
toxic substances. So we just
thought if we can just take
something that is actually
toxic to our environment
and make good use out of
it, it can make it sufficient
and eco-friendly.”
Shanaz Baksh, a science
research teacher who has been
running the science program
at the school for several years,
said the students learn the
skills of research, how to
present, and how to search/
read a journal article and
write a proposal.
“They learn these skills
and develop a project that
they’re passionate about,”
said Baksh. “When they got
in the competition I was
ecstatic. We’re going to get
to meet people from all over
the nation which is very nice,
and they will get to meet their
peers that have also been
working on science projects.
All around we’re very happy,
excited and supportive. We
just want the students to enjoy
the experience.”
Read more at QNS.com.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by email at
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–4526.
QNS.COM TIMESLEDGER, JULY 5-11, 2019 13
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