This year, Blind Brook High School made an impressive showing at the 2025 Regeneron Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF), held on March 15th at Somers High School. As the largest science fair in the United States, WESEF hosted more than 750 student projects and over 500 expert judges across Westchester and Putnam Counties.The event culminated in an awards ceremony on March 20th, where the top 20 students earned the honor of advancing to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Columbus, Ohio this May.
Blind Brook was represented by five outstanding seniors, presenting in various categories:
Rachel Horn showcased her project, “Establishing Associations Between Physical Activity and Visual and Sensorimotor Activation During Motor Tasks.” Her study explored the link between physical activity levels and brain activation patterns during motor tasks, offering insights into preventative strategies against cognitive decline in aging populations. She was awarded Third Place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Category for her research and presentation.
Alexandra Maniscalco tackled the emerging field of artificial intelligence with her project, “Comparing the Ability of ChatGPT 4.0 Mini, Gemini, and Copilot to Label Hand Gestures.” Her work assessed how well different AI models could recognize nonverbal cues, revealing important differences in performance across various visual environments.
Ella Mensch addressed a pressing public health issue today: Teenage overdose in her study entitled “Impact of Social Media Substance- Taking Trends on the Occurrence of Overdoses in Adolescents.” Ella’s research investigated how viral internet challenges influence teenage overdose rates, emphasizing the growing need for media literacy and health education among youth.
Emily Tian presented her research, “Evaluating the Role of Chest Tube Placement in Cytoreductive Surgery Outcomes for Advanced Ovarian Cancer Patients.” Her study analyzed how factors such as surgical time and length of hospital stay impacted patients with a chest tube recovering from advanced Ovarian Cancer.
Lastly, Charlotte Zelin delivered her presentation on “Rare Disease Diagnosis Using Knowledge Guided Retrieval Augmentation for Chat GPT.” Here, Charlotte developed Rare DxGPT, an enhanced diagnostic tool leveraging retrieval-augmented generation to improve the accuracy of rare disease diagnoses. She received the Innovations in Biological Sciences Research Award.
Despite this being the last competition for these seniors, the Blind Brook community will have another opportunity to celebrate these students at the upcoming Science Research Symposium held on May 21st!