April 15, 2025 — Halton District School Board
Halton District School Board (HDSB) students excelled at the annual Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF), held in late March. BASEF is a regional fair that provides young people with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Of the 123 HDSB student entries at BASEF, 70 projects earned awards with cash prizes totaling $17,965 and scholarships totaling $70,000, as a result of the generous participation of dozens of sponsors and charitable donors. In addition, two projects are advancing to the International Science and Engineering Fair, and 10 projects are advancing to the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Primary Fluid Systems Best in Fair Pinnacle Award
- Evan Budz, Grade 9 student at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School, for the project, Development of an Autonomous Bionic Sea Turtle Robot to Conduct Ecological Monitoring using AI
Primary Fluid Systems Third Best in Fair Pinnacle Award
- Anish Rathod, Grade 12 student at Burlington Central High School, for the project, PIONEER: Pipe Inspection and Observation for Non-Destructive Evaluation and Environmental Review
Canada-Wide Science Fair Awards:
- Imran Allarakhia, Grade 9 student at Abbey Park High School, for the project, CareBotix in Motion: Advanced Simulation Environments & VLA Models for Robust Dexterous Manipulation
- Jacob Michael LeBlanc, Grade 10 student at Abbey Park High School, for the project, Re-evaluating AQHI: A New Model for Assessing Wildfire Smoke and Benzo(a)pyrene Health Risks
- Lohitaksh Badarala, Grade 8 student at Bruce Trail Public School, for the project, Q-CaDD: Accelerating In Silico Methodologies with Quantum Computation and Machine Learning for EGFR
- Anish Rathod, Grade 12 student at Burlington Central High School, for the project, PIONEER: Pipe Inspection and Observation for Non-Destructive Evaluation and Environmental Review
- Evan Budz, Grade 9 student at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School, for the project, Development of an Autonomous Bionic Sea Turtle Robot to Conduct Ecological Monitoring using AI
- Jasmine Wang, Grade 10 student at Iroquois Ridge High School, for the project, Wildfire Detection and Prediction system using a Sequential Transformer model for improved accuracy
- Claire Marsh, Grade 11 student at M.M. Robinson High School, for the project, Autism Identification Tool: An AI Approach to Reducing Diagnostic Barriers
- Eva Duan, Grade 10 student at Oakville Trafalgar High School, for the project, Sodium Alginate-Chitosan Hydrogel Burn Wound Dressing with pH-Sensitive Infection Detection
- Rahul Rao, Grade 8 student at W. H. Morden Public School, for the project, The Power of Pectin: Attenuating Toxic By-Products for Enhanced Hydrogel Drug Delivery
- Zoya Waseem, Grade 9 student at White Oaks Secondary School, for the project, The Cancer MIRACLE A Novel Diagnostic Model Using Salivary miRNA Profiling for Oral Cancer Detection
The Halton District School Board is incredibly proud of our students, not only for the outstanding results at BASEF, but for the creativity, dedication and innovative thinking they brought to their projects. Their accomplishments highlight the remarkable talent of our students in STEM and underscore the role this important learning plays in sparking curiosity and innovation. In alignment with our Multi-Year Strategic Plan, students are connecting what they learn to real-world challenges — which prepares them for success in an ever-evolving world.
— Curtis Ennis, Director of Education for HDSB
