Evergreen trio named regional winners in Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision competition

Published 12:30 pm Tuesday, March 22, 2016

A trio of eighth-graders from Evergreen Middle School (EMS) in unincorporated King County near Redmond were recently named regional winners in the 24th annual Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) ExploraVision competition.

The three girls — Ayushi Desai, Reeteka Kudallur and Pujha Raghudev — were one of 24 regional winning teams. They entered the contest as part of a class project in their science class.

Their teacher Jason Steele said the contest addressed one of the district’s standards in that its focus is on how science and technology can affect and help humans. He said the ExploraVision competition asks students to take a current technology and develop it into a future technology that could improve or solve a problem people face.

MODIFIED CHEMOTHERAPY

For their project, The LIC Balloon, Desai, Kudallur and Raghudev developed Locally Infused Chemotherapy (LIC) as a treatment for eliminating malignant tumors.

According to a press release from the Lake Washington School District (LWSD), the balloon consists of chemotherapy drugs inside a medical balloon, computed tomography and a catheter. First, the computed tomography scans the affected area to produce images of the tumor, then the LIC balloon is inserted via catheter. The balloon would then be directed toward the tumor and encapsulate it, isolating the tumor from the rest of the body. The chemotherapy drugs would then be released, contained within the balloon. And once the treatment is complete, the drugs are sucked back out to keep it from infecting the rest of the body, the release states.

Raghudevm said they chose to tackle the issue of cancer because all three of them had been affected by cancer, having known people in their lives who have been diagnosed with one form or another.

Desai added that they chose to try to improve chemotherapy since it is one of the most common forms of treatment for cancer and they wanted to find a way to reduce the side effects.

WINNERS AMONG THOUSANDS

Steele assigned the project in November 2015 and students had until Feb. 1 to complete and submit their work for the competition. The three 13-year-olds learned later that month that they had won for their region in the middle category (grades 7-9).

The competition is broken up by age as well as six regions throughout the country and Canada. Desai, Kudallur and Raghudev won in their age group for Region 6. This region covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Steele and each of the girls received a certificate and Toshiba tablet. In addition, EMS received a plaque and a new Toshiba laptop.

“We couldn’t believe it,” Desai said about when they learned they had won for their category and region.

Kudallur agreed, saying they just worked on the project as a class assignment, not thinking about winning.

Steele also couldn’t believe his students had won, though he acknowledged the hard work the trio put into their project.

“They’re pretty good students,” he said.

Desai’s, Kudallur’s and Raghudev’s parents were also excited and proud of their daughters’ win.

Manjari Lai, Kudallur’s mother, said she was aware of the project but did not know much of the details other than it had to do with chemotherapy. Lai and the other girls’ mothers said their daughters are best friends and recalled how the trio would stay up late talking to each other on the phone discussing the project.Lai said they are “thrilled” about the teens’ win as it is a huge achievement for such a young age. Although, she added that it took a little while for the news to sink in and for them to realize they had won out of thousands of entries.

HARD WORK AND EXTENSIVE RESEARCH

Some of the hard work the teens put in that Steele referred to included a lot of time researching — speaking with doctors and other field exerts — and presenting their idea in theory. Through their research and discussions with experts, Kudallur said people told them their idea was not possible, that there were flaws in their plans and it would be difficult to build a prototype.

Desai said doctors explained to them that this was because tumors are not free floating inside the human body. They are connected to other body parts, which makes it challenging to completely isolate a tumor within their proposed balloon.

In addition to the experts’ help, the girls also received help from Brijesh Desai, Ayushi’s father. Brijesh is a software engineer at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond and as a mentor for the girls, he said he just offered guidance from time to time.

WHAT’S TO COME

Desai, Kudallur and Raghudev will be submitting their project once again for the national ExploraVision competition next month and this time around, Steele said they will have to submit a website, video and prototype.

If they win the national competition, each girl will receive a $10,000 savings bond. If they receive second place, they will each receive a $5,000 savings bond. The first-place and second-place winners will also receive an expense-paid trip for themselves and a parent or guardian to Washington D.C. for a gala awards weekend in June.