We are proud to announce that 6 members and/or mentors have been named as TJSHS Finalists! They will be competing in College Station, TX in two weeks. Wish them luck!

Alay Shah:  Behavioral/Medicine
Ellen Sun: Behavioral/Medicine
Lillian Ye: Biochemistry/Microbiology
Andrei Spiride: Engineering
Ethan Zhao: Environmental Science
Nicholas Zhong: Physics/Earth & Space

As members began to wrap up experimentation, AYSI dove into presentation tactics and interview tips in last week's meeting. Mentors also conducted mock interviews with students. Future meetings will dedicate more time towards refining students' elevator speeches, enhancing vocal projection, and fine-tuning interview techniques.

To those who unfortunately did not move on from school competition: do not worry! We are incredibly proud of the work you've done, and you should be too. There are plenty of other competitions to submit your projects to - for this, please see our FAQ page. Also consider starting your new projects! Research and engineering are processes that take time; it's never too early to get started on new ideas. Let us know what you come up with!

Our meeting regarding refining research and creating presentations was a success! AYSI members experienced a full-featured lesson and mentorship session on taking their research to the next level with data and statistics methods. They also learned how to create effective visual and oral presentations for the upcoming competition season. The AYSI team is very excited to see these students shine in the science fairs looming up on the horizon. Future meetings will dedicate more time towards refining students' presentations and conducting mock interviews to prepare them for rigorous competitions.

Congratulations to all AYSI members who took home prizes from TJAS this past week! We are glad to report that all members who attended placed! Below are the results from competition:
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Alay Shah: 3rd Place in Medicine/Behavioral Sciences
Andrei Spiride: 2nd Place in General Engineering
​Ethan Zhao: 3rd Place in General Engineering
John Rho: 2nd Place in Medicine/Behavioral Sciences
Kevin Meng: 2nd Place in Computer Science/Math I
Rachel Mammen: 2nd Place in Botany/Zoology

We're so proud of you all!

Congratulations to Ethan Zhao and the team of Ellen Sun and Jean Ye for taking home 1st and 2nd prizes, respectively, at the National CAST-USA YEC Competition this weekend! Way to make AYSI proud!

Hope you all enjoyed our special niche session about keynote presentations! It's amazing that some of you already have your projects done and are ready to compete. It was wonderful hearing you present your projects, and we hope you've learned something through our mentors' comments. All members can access slides and a video recording of the meeting here. Best of luck at Columbia University for those attending YEC and at College Station for TJAS!

For those who are looking for more help on their slides after some refinement, please do not hesitate to email your slides over to aysi.officers@gmail.com for additional comments before your competition.

Congratulations to AYSI members Ellen Sun and Ethan Zhao for advancing to the national finals of the CAST-USA Young Eagles Cup, a national competition that will be held at Columbia University this coming October. Best of luck!! 🎉🎉🎉

We will be holding a mentorship session for keynote-style presentations soon. Stay tuned for more!

Huge thank you to all the new members that showed up to the first official meeting of AYSI! Thanks to everyone who paid their dues and fees, but if you haven't yet please pay them as soon as possible so we can clear up any issues before we continue into the rest of the year. At this meeting, all of our mentors were able to look through several projects and we are certain that everyone will be able to be incredibly successful by the time the competition rolls around. If you had a topic proposal and got new idea s for where to take your project, go ahead and continue your research and planning. If you have any questions, ask one on the AYSI message portal or the groups.io. If you haven't fully developed a proposal, keep researching through scholarly articles/journals, websites, and scientific blogs that may pose a good research plan or opportunity for you to explore. It's important to stay curious and be open to any ideas that you come across! Additionally, if you are uncertain on how you are going to execute an idea or plan that you have stumbled upon during your research, feel free to ask an experienced mentor that will be able to guide you through the processes required. Below are some pictures taken at the event, and click here for the full picture file courtesy of Kyle Zeng. 

As always, we can't wait to see what new scientific and engineering projects you'll be able to design, execute, and implement in the near future. Good luck on all of your future endeavors!

Thanks to everyone who came to our membership orientation meeting at Davis Library and made it a success! Here, we were able to discuss the basic aspects of our organization, talk about advice for future science fair contestants, and walk through some previously successful projects that have been used by the mentors. We also did some icebreakers, shared ideas, and answered any questions about the scientific process. Below are some photos taken at the event, and click here for the full album of professional photos taken at the event by Dr. Donglan Xia. Thank you again to everyone who came, and we hope you the best in your future scientific research! We can't wait to see what y'all have in store for the new year.