Emily Ocasio, a senior at the New School of Northern Virginia, took home the second place prize in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the “oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.” The second place prize comes with a $175,000 award.
The competition aims to celebrate young scientists who are “passionate about innovation and using scientific discovery to contribute to improving our world.” In order to compete, 40 finalists – selected from a pool of nearly 2,000 applicants – completed original research projects on subjects of their choosing.
“Congratulations to the winners of the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2023,” said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science and executive publisher of Science News. “These young leaders are the stewards of our future. I am in awe of their creativity and conviction.”
Ocasio’s project, “Demographic Correlates of Humanizing Media Coverage of Homicide: Evidence from the Boston Globe, 1976-84,” used artificial intelligence to measure demographic-based media biases in coverage of homicide victims.
Ocasio used GPT-3, an artificial intelligence program, to compare FBI data with archival Boston Globe articles on homicide cases, mapping out the amount of humanizing details that were included in the coverage. She was able to demonstrate biases based on the victims’ races, genders, and ages.
Two other Virginia students were named in the top 10 Regeneron Science winners. Max Misterka of Harrisonburg won the fourth place prize for his study, “A Generalization of q-Calculus Using Formal Group Laws.” He won a $100,000 prize.
Ethan Zhou of McLean won seventh place for his study, “Online Learning of Smooth Functions,” which studied the theory behind a machine learning model. He was awarded $70,000.
The first place Regeneron Science prize went to Neel Moudgal, from Saline, Michigan, who created a computer model that can predict the structure of RNA molecules. Each of the 40 finalists was awarded at least $25,000. In all, the competition awarded $1.8 million in academic prizes.
Feature photo courtesy Society for Science/Chris Ayers Photography
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