Thai Youth Win the First Place of Science and Engineering Project Competition in REGENERON ISEF 2022

May 13, 2022/ Two teams of Thai students have recently won the first places of Grand Awards of science and engineering project competition in The Regeneron ISEF 2022 (Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair) held during May 7-13, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. A team from Prince Royal College, Chiang Mai has won the first place in translation medicine and also selected to receive the Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations with $50,000 or 1.7 million Thai Baht.   Another team from Mahidol Withayanuson School, Nakhon Pathom has won the first place in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.  

Asst.Prof.Dr.Rawim Raviwongs, president of National Science Museum-NSM said “in cooperation with Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation by NSM, National Science and Technology Development Agency and Science Society of Thailand Under the Patronage of HM the King, we have supported 16 teams of Thai students to join the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair held by Society for Science & the Public, during May 7-13, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. The Thai attendees are selected from national science project competition, the 17th young scientist camp 2021 and the 24th science project competition of young scientist or YSC 2022. In the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, there were 1,750 high school attendees from 63 countries and states of the USA. with a total of 1410 projects.”

Napasssorn Litchiowawong, Christ Titijumreonpon, Wattanapong Uthayotha and Mrs.Roonkhan Wanboon (counselor) from Prince Royal College, Chiang Mai have received the first prize of Grand Award in translation medicine and also selected to receive the Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations with $50,000 or 1.7 million Thai Baht, for their creation of a faster and more accurate way to diagnose a type of liver fluke infection using BiDEx application and AI technology that can lead to bile duct cancer in humans. The team built and trained neural network software to identify the parasite's eggs in microscopic fecal images with 98% accuracy and then developed a rapid screening questionnaire that was 83.33% faster.   

Wuttipong Chongchareansanti, Pawit Kawwnuratchadasom, Nattawin Yamprasert and Dr.Saroj Boonseng and Mr.Bundid Bunyarith (counselors),  from Mahidol Withayanuson School, Nakhon Pathom have won the first place in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics.  Their research project on CANDraGAT: A Hybrid Fragment-Based Graph Attention Network which will improve cancer drug response prediction.

Prof.Dr.Thanuttkhul Mongkolaussavarat, Chair of Science Society of Thailand Under the Patronage of HM the King has delivered his congratulations to the 16 teams of Thai students participated in the international Regeneron 2022, and the winner teams. He said the opportunity to join the competition is a valuable experience and expects the students can get more knowledge and experience from this event for research development of Thailand.

In addition, the other Thai student teams have also won the Grand Awards and Special Awards are as follows: 
1.Princess Chulabhon Science School Pathumthani has won the third place of animal science in Rearing Crickets Teleogryllus mitratus in Green LED Light Can Significantly Reduce Limb Autotomy and Mortality.  
2.Mahidol Withayanuson School, Nakhon Pathom has won the fourth of biomedical health science and Special Award, USAID Science for Development First Award – Global Health and U.S. Agency for International Development in Highly Efficient, Portable and Low-Cost Point of Care Test Kit for Future Emerging RNA/DNA Diseases Diagnosis.
3.Mahidol Withayanuson School, Nakhon Pathom has won the fourth of biomedical engineering in Microneedles for Creatinine Detection: Novel Prototype of Non-Invasive Portable Tool Towards Chronic Kidney Disease Risk Assessment. 
4.Princess Chulabhon Science School Pathumthani has won the second place of earth and environmental science in A Novel Floatable Planting Material for Inner Mangrove Forest Inspired by Barringtonia asiatica and a Special Award in A Novel Floatable Planting Material for Inner Mangrove Forest Inspired by Barringtonia asiatica.  
5.Benjamarachutit School, Nakhon Sri Thammarat has won the fourth place of physics and astronomy in Bob Pendulum Oscillation Under Air Flow: An Experimental and Numerical Investigation. 

“Those Thai students participated in the Regeneron 2022 and those who have won the awards have marked a reputation of this country. We expect them to further conduct their research projects for future development of this country” Asst.Prof.Dr.Rawim Raviwongs added.