Indian American STEM Whiz Kids Named 2017 Siemens Regional Finalists

The Siemens Foundation Oct. 18 announced the regional finalists for the 2017 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, with a slew of Indian American and South Asian American high school students making the list.

The announcement came a day after the foundation announced 491 semifinalists for the research competition (see India-West article here). Those semifinalists were chosen from an initial field of more than 1,860 submissions.

Among the regional finalists are Californians Swapnil Garg, Sohini Kar, Rachana Madhukara and Arjun Subramonian; Arav Agarwal, Sai Anantapantula and Chittesh Thavamani of Michigan; and Haran Kumar of Missouri.

In New Hampshire, Evan Chandran and Anusha Murali were among the regional finalists, while New Jersey’s Nikhil Gopal moved on to the next phase of the competition.

New Yorkers Rahul Parthasarathy, Rushikesh Patel, Vedant Singh, Sahith Vadada and Sri Yalamanchi were also named regional finalists. Meanwhile, Ohio’s Suraj Srinivasan and Oregon’s Arnob Das and Pushkar Shinde advanced.

Texas students Abhishek Mohan, Sahil Patel and Kshitij Sachan all were named regional finalists as well. Virginia’s Surbhi Mathur and Washington’s Sriharshita Musunuri were also among those students moving on.

The 101 regional finalists will now advance to the next round of the competition – the Regional Finals. All regional finalists receive at least $1,000 in scholarship money while the first place individuals and teams from these regional competitions win $3,000 and $6,000, respectively.

There will be a total of six regional finals, leading to the national finals in Washington, D.C.

At this year’s event, in a change from previous years, the top prize at the national competition will award the student $100,000 with second earning $50,000 and third receiving $25,000.

“We believe the new award structure for the finals better reflects the extraordinarily high caliber of projects considered,” said David Etzwiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation, in a statement. “It’s an acknowledgement that today’s students produce impressive levels of research that change the world as we know it. Congratulations to the regional finalists on their accomplishments and best of luck to them in the next phase of the competition.”

The annual high school competition, which launched in 1999, honors the best and brightest students for their accomplishments in math and science – students who are changing the world for the better, the foundation said.

Students submit innovative individual and team research projects to regional and national levels of competition as they vie for college scholarships ranging from $1,000 up to $100,000, it said.

This year, for the first time, a new pricing structure will ensure that national finalists will receive a minimum of $25,000, according to Siemens.

Note: the names mentioned above are not necessarily the full list of Indian American and South Asian American students who were named finalists.