A TdMnM patch to treat Erythrodermic Psoriasis, a method of using electric stimulation to increase Mycelia-Plant Mutualism, a treatment for Open Angle Glaucoma: no, these are not the ideas of professional bioengineers—they are the projects of 15 PHS students who participated in the annual Bioengineering High School Competition, also known as the BioEHSC competition.
According to the article “PHS students place third in UC Berkeley bioengineering competition”, on Saturday, April 6, three teams of PHS students competed in the BioEHSC, an annual high school bioengineering competition run by the UC Berkeley Bioengineering Honor Society. PHS competed against 50 national and Californian teams.
According to the article “PHS students place third in UC Berkeley bioengineering competition”, the BioEHSC is both a research and design competition in which a group of students define a biological or biomedical problem, complete research and then propose a novel engineering solution to the problem. From there on, each team would be matched with a UC Berkeley Bioengineering mentor.
“The hardest part is just brainstorming and coming up with an idea. Once you have an idea, there’s a path that you know how to take,” senior Jamie Schwarz said.
Out of the three teams PHS sent to the competition, one team, consisting of seniors Josephine Oesterer, Jamie Schwarz, Jeremy Tuan, Mark Hsia, and Miles Antaya, placed third, said Seto-Rosen. The team placed second at last year’s competition.
“We were looking at the negative impacts of fertilizer use on the environment and how expensive it is, so we wanted to come up with an alternative to that,” Schwarz said. “We came up with this way of electrically stimulating fungi to do the same thing that fertilizer does.”
According to the article “PHS students place third in UC Berkeley bioengineering competition”, the teams each spent a total of seven weeks preparing for the in-person competition by creating a video submission, a poster, an academic presentation, and an industry pitch.
“The video was fun to film, as was editing it,” junior Emmett Baldwin said. “I went in-depth with it, I drew a few animations for it on my iPad.”
This year, the number of PHS students interested in participating in the BioEHSC hit a record high.
“The school can send two teams that consist of five members. I had about 20 students that were interested, so I asked the organizers if I could have three teams, and they agreed,” said AP Biology teacher Shelley Seto-Rosen. “We were able to send 15 students and we just drew straws [to see who could participate], except for teams that were returning from last year and the teams who had expressed interest last year.”
The BioEHSC is an opportunity for students to gain and practice a variety of skills.
“[A skill I gained through participating in the competition was] learning how to read scientific journals and find scientific research that’s useful,” Schwarz said.
This competition can also help prepare students for their future careers.
“I think it is a great opportunity [for students] to do a little bit of networking and preview what they possibly might be studying in college,” Seto-Rosen said.
The BioEHSC is also a way for students to practice their teamwork skills.
“Since I was working in a team where everyone was committed, [the project] turned out well and we all put in the work so that in the end it was very good,” Baldwin said.
In hindsight, participants said they wish they had a more open mindset when designing their project.
“[At the beginning of the process] we were too focused on how realistic our idea was and how expensive it would be, so that was shutting down a lot of ideas for us,” Schwarz said. “But you can’t have scientific advancement without being open to ideas that might not actually be possible.”
Through the BioEHSC, students were able to connect with their peers and classmates and get to spend more time with them.
“We would meet at each other’s houses and it was just fun because we would order pizza and work [on our project],” Baldwin said.
The BioEHSC also allowed students to pursue their passions and interests and see whether they could see a future in this field of study.
“I have always been interested in science, but this really confirmed that this is what I want to study in college and everything,” Schwarz said.
Seto-Rosen said the competition is not limited to students enrolled in the AP Biology class.
“I’m really proud of all these students. It can be a lot of work and also requires teamwork as well,” Seto-Rosen said. “I would really encourage anyone, whether they take AP biology or not, to participate if they are interested in bioengineering.”
