KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Five high school students from the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center (KAMSC) achieved remarkable success on the global stage, bringing home prestigious accolades, top-tier placements, and major scholarships from the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held May 10–15 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Regeneron ISEF is widely recognized as the world’s premier pre-collegiate STEM competition. Every year across the globe, more than 170,000 students design and execute independent
research, with fewer than 1,800 finalists selected from over 60 participating countries earn the privilege of competing at the international finals.
This year’s finalists received more than $7 million in awards based on their projects’ creativity, innovation, and depth of scientific inquiry.
Among this elite cohort, school officials say the KAMSC students distinguished themselves through rigorous scientific inquiry and innovative engineering design across multiple categories:
● Aanya Goel (KAMSC and Portage Central High School), Claire Tong (KAMSC and Portage Northern High School), and Janelle Yao (KAMSC and Portage Central High School) captured a prestigious Second Place Grand Award in Plant Sciences alongside a $2,400 cash prize on May 15. Their joint research project, “A Systematic Study of the Caffeine Biosynthetic Enzymes in the Ilex Genus,” meticulously mapped the genetic pathways and enzymatic actions responsible for caffeine production within the holly genus, offering foundational insights for plant biology.
● Yuvan Muppireddy (KAMSC and Portage Northern High School) secured the highly competitive Office of Naval Research Award on May 14, receiving a transformative $20,000 scholarship. Muppireddy was honored for his advanced engineering project, “Zephyr: A Military-Inspired, Hand-Built Fixed-Wing UAV on a $400 Budget,” which successfully demonstrated that sophisticated, high-performance unmanned aerial vehicles can be custom-built using highly cost-efficient parameters.
● Nina Shaye (KAMSC and Portage Central High School) represented the state as a top competitor after capturing the coveted Grand Award at the Michigan Science and Engineering Fair in Southfield, Michigan, on April 11, 2026. Shaye presented her cutting-edge diagnostic project, “Novel Endoscopic Ultrasound-Enabled Detection of Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer via a Hybrid CNN-ViT System,” which bridges artificial intelligence and oncology to dramatically improve automated early-stage tumor detection accuracy.
School officials says the journey to the international level began locally for the finalists March 20 at the Southwest Michigan Science and Engineering Fair hosted at Western Michigan University.
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