Anvesha Sharda Places First in Kansas State Science and Engineering Fair, Going on to Internationals

Thurston Rogers, Staff Writer

Junior Anvesha Sharda and seniors Grace Bannister and Julius Neumann spent the weekend in Wichita at the Kansas State Science and Engineering Fair where they showed their research projects, with Sharda going first in her category and the top prize overall for the event.. 

Sharda will now move on to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas on May 14th. Details on the awards and who moves on who placed what are sparse as the three students of the class who attended the fair were not able to attend the awards ceremony as they had to leave Wichita the day before the ceremony. 

Only Anvesha Sharda, who won first overall and first in her category, got an email telling her of her victory. The other two students of the class are still pending news of their placements, though it’s tough to tell if they’ll ever know as communication has been scarce with the students with only Sharda being told anything after the fair.

The Manhattan High participants in the state-level event, held at the Cessna Activity Center, are all in the University Level Mentorship class, where they researched their topic and made poster boards showcasing their topics that they chose personally. With the help of mentor professors from Kansas State University, they were each able to make passion-filled projects that were submitted to the state competition. 

Neurmann did his project on Huntington’s disease, Bannister did her project on Salmonella contamination especially in poultry products and Sharda did her winning project on the immune system and T cells. The students all expressed how great the opportunity and experience was and how fortunate they were. 

“I was so fortunate to have this opportunity,” Neumann said. Sharda will move on to the international competition with her research project and is “Currently a little frazzled.” by the situation. 

“I would love to share my research with more people,” Sharda said. “It was a greate experience and there were more people than I originally thought.”