Junior advances to international science fair

A Santa Catalina School junior has been sponsored by the Monterey County Office of Education to participate in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May. The event bills itself as “the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition.”

Angelina Tseng will also compete in the California Science and Engineering Fair in April. Projects at the state level are judged online.

Angelina took first place in the mechanical and electrical engineering category at the Monterey County Science and Engineering Fair on March 23. Her project won three additional awards: the U.S. Air Force Award, the Yale Science and Engineering Association Award, and an award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

For her project, Angelina developed a magnetic robot to improve the inspection process for bridges. The robot includes assistive AI image classification technology, has 360-degree mobility, and can navigate corners.

She was not the only Santa Catalina student to take home awards from the Monterey County competition.

In the environmental sciences division, project teams Piper Butler ’25 and Sophie Gong ’25 (2nd place) and Allie Fieber ’25 and Grace Ge ’25 (3rd place) also advanced to the state science fair. In addition, Allie and Grace received the EPA and USAID awards.

In the animal sciences category, Riley Barringer ’24 and Norah Elena Ruiz ’24 took first place while Coco Xu ’25 and Jasmine Choi ’25 placed second.

The Monterey County Science and Engineering Fair took on a different format this year. Students first had to present their projects at the school level, with the top projects being submitted to the county fair. Santa Catalina held its science fair in January.