Hewlett students named Siemens regional winners

For the second time in less than a month, the names of Hewlett High School students were announced by officials of the Siemens Math, Science and Technology Competition as the regional finalist team of Priyanka Wadgaonkar, Zainab Mahmood, and JiaWen Pei won the team category at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh last weekend.

“When our names were announced as the regional winners, we were all shocked, but a the same time ecstatic because all of our hard work and efforts had finally paid off,” said Mahmood, adding that the Hewlett project was done in the school’s own laboratory and won over projects researched at universities and research centers.

They will share a $6,000 scholarship prize and advanced to the finals, which will take place at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. from Dec. 6-10. Last year, Hewlett students Jeremy Appelbaum, William Gil and Allen Shin, won the $100,000 grand prize in the team category.

“I am extremely proud of my students,” said Dr. Terrence Bissoondial, who established Hewlett’s research program in 1999. “With limited resources and funding, they were able to unravel some of the intricate responses of plants to environmental assault such as bacterial infection and pollution. Their research and presentation showcase Hewlett High School’s lead in implementing in the Common Core curriculum in science.”

The girls’ project, “The Isolation and Characterization of an Ozone Responsive Stress Related Protein (OZS) in Ceratopteris richardii,” showed that multiple copies of the gene OZS would increase plant resistance to ozone, resulting in greater crop yields.

“We hope to do well and have fun at the competition,” Pei said.