Return to Headlines

Young Scientists Recognized Among City’s Best at Regional Science Fair

KATY, TX [March 25, 2025] – Ten of Katy ISD’s budding scientists were recognized for their research and achievement at this year’s Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH), held last month at the Fort Bend Epicenter. The event celebrates the scientific research of secondary students in life sciences, physical sciences and engineering.

SEFH is the regional science fair for Harris County and the surrounding 22 counties, and first and second place winners will advance to the Texas State Science & Engineering Fair, which will be held later this month at Texas A&M University.

Among this year’s winners, Tompkins High School’s May Espinola was named a Grand Award winner in the Senior Physical Sciences category and her project has automatically advanced to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. Brothers Arsh and Aarush Kudariya were both named winners in their respective fields and categories.

“We are so proud of these students for placing at the regional fair because there are highly-accomplished young researchers across our region,” said Danielle Sanchez, Director of GT and Advanced Academics in Katy ISD. “I’d like to recognize their families and educators for helping these students earn this outstanding achievement.”

The following Katy ISD students were named 2025 SEFH winners:

Name	School	Division	Category	Project Title	Place
Arsh Kudariya	Beckendorff Junior High	Junior	Physics and Astronomy	Leveraging Computational Fluid Dynamics for Real-Time Pipe Diagnostics Through Reynolds Number Analysis	1^st Place
Vatsal Sharda	Cinco Ranch High School	Senior	Embedded Systems	ImpairiLink: A novel, machine-learning based attentiveness and navigation aid system for the blind/impaired using haptic technology	1^st Place
May Espinola	Tompkins High School	Senior	Systems Software	Unobstructing voice for the deaf: A real-time centered signed language recognition system	1^st Place
Diya Rajkumar	Tays Junior High	Junior	Chemistry	Computational Simulations of Antibody Binding to VAPB Receptors for Targeted Therapy in Medulloblastoma	2^nd Place
Aarush Kudariya	Seven Lakes High School	Senior	Biochemistry and Microbiology	Targeting pMHC: A Novel Tripartite In-Silico Approach for Liposome-Aided Ultralong Antibody Therapy in Colorectal Cancer Variants	2^nd Place
Rishan Hemrajani, Suchay Kommisetty and Jay Sahni	Jordan High School	Senior	Energy and Transportation	Optimization of Solar Cells through Simulation of a Quantum Dot Buffer Layer	3^rd Place
Andy Long	Seven Lakes High School	Senior	Physics and Astronomy	Numerical Transition Radiation Simulations for Electron Beam Structure Analysis and Machine Learning Modeling	3^rd Place
Alexander Park	Cinco Ranch High School	Senior	Embedded Systems	Developing a low-cost Peltier-element-based Precision Temperature Controller PCB	Honorable Mention

Science and Engineering Fair of Houston 2025 Photo Gallery

###