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Congratulations to our many award winners for the CWSF 2021 Virtual Fair. Our Waterloo-Wellington team did a phenomenal job of representing us at the Canada-Wide Science Fair and brought home many awards to showcase the bright minds within our Region.
HARDIT SINGH – Speculor: A Comprehensive Teleophthalmology Platform for People Centered Eyecare
Best Project Award – Crystal (Intemediate)
Excellence Award – Gold (Intermediate)
Challenge Award – Disease and Illness (Intermediate)
Youth Can Innovate Award (Intermediate)
Best Project Award – Innovation (Intermediate)
Centre for Canadian Nuclear Sustainability Award
York University STEM Entrepreneur Bootcamp Scholarship Award (Intermediate)
PROJECT SUMMARY: I developed Speculor, combining low-cost portable retinal imagers using smartphones with artificial intelligence to screen diseases. Speculor builds a low-cost teleophthalmology platform serving marginalized communities. A new transfer learning method was invented and tested for the classification of glaucoma achieving the best results reported in literature. Imagers have been tested in a clinic and pick up all clinically relevant features needed for accurate diagnosis for glaucoma.
JASMINE SCHNEIDER – A Protist Against Fertilizer Runoff
Excellence Award – Silver (Intermediate)
PROJECT SUMMARY: The project studied the link between synthetic and organic fertilizer usage on algal growth. Runoff from organic and synthetic fertilizers as well as compost manure was added to algal samples in order to compare their growth rates and overall growth. Both synthetic and organic fertilizers produced similar results. Compost manure consistently showed less algal growth.
ALKA DEVI UKRANI – Prevention of Agrobacterium Tumor Invasion in Plants and VIR Gene Expression – Mathematical Models
Excellence Award – Silver (Senior)
PROJECT SUMMARY: Plant diseases reduce agricultural yields. Crown gall disease, caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, triggers tumor formation that affects hundreds of plant species, including tomatoes and apples. During infection environmental signals activate bacterial-specific virulence genes that direct Agrobacterium to induce tumor formation. My project built five mathematical Hill function-based models to estimate parameters that influence virulence gene expression.
CINDY CHENG – A Modular Multi-Functional Wound Dressing
Excellence Award – Gold (Junior)
Challenge Award – Disease and Illness (Junior)
S.M. Blair Family Foundation Award
PROJECT SUMMARY: Patients suffering from multiple illnesses and elderly patients are susceptible to developing non-healing wounds caused by infection. Traditional wound dressings cannot fight like infection. I developed a “smart” wound dressing capable of both treating infection and displaying infection in a colourimetric fashion. My wound dressing can adapt to a wide variety of wound types, promote quick recovery, and reduce cost and labour.
JULIAN HALL – Meow!! Analysis of the Benefits of the Feline Laser Toy
Excellence Award – Gold (Junior)
Challenge Award – Curiosity and Ingenuity (Junior)
PROJECT SUMMARY: I wanted to see if the cats would get more exercise from playing with the laser toy and whether it would cause them mental stress. I compared the laser toy to a feather wand toy. This was an important experiment because the majority of pet cats are overweight and don’t get enough exercise. The results of my experiment showed that the laser toy provided cats with a good way to get exercise in a way that was safe and that did not cause an increase in mental stress.
NEIL MITRA – A Graphene Oxide Paper Microfluidic Device for Heart Attacks
Excellence Award – Gold (Senior)
Challenge Award – Disease and Illness (Senior)
Youth Can Innovate Award (Senior)
PROJECT SUMMARY: Certain cardiac indicators in blood increase during the progression of a heart attack. A test strip for early detection is developed using commonly available paper that works with a small quantity of simulated blood. The indicators are separated from the whole blood sample using a patent-pending graphene oxide filter membrane. The process takes less than two minutes with a final cost of around $1.
CONNOR JANTZI – Detecting Disaster – Preventing Devastation
Excellence Award – Bronze (Intermediate)
PROJECT SUMMARY: If a tree falls in the forest, I WILL KNOW! One impact of climate change is forest fires which destroy nature, animals, and many homes. My device can decrease deforestation by monitoring and limiting the destruction of woodlands. Using AI and deep learning, my device will accurately detect extreme heat from fires in the forest, listen for unnatural noises including chainsaws, gunshots, machinery, and harmful unauthorized human activity.
The Waterloo-Wellington Science & Engineering Fair isn’t just an event, it’s an investment of passion, knowledge, enrichment and time. Students who compete in the WWSEF and win awards and scholarships show a commitment and passion for their studies and learn skills that can be applied to future careers.
Many of our alumni that have done well in the WWSEF, CWSF (Canada Wide Science Fair), or ISEF (International Science & Engineering Fair) have grown up to become leaders and difference-makers in their fields of study or their profession.
Developing Canada’s capacity for high-quality research in science, technology and engineering since 1974.
CRA Registration No: 119289304RR0001
January 5, 2026
Registration Opens
January 5, 2026
Deadline for Students Wishing to Enter as Individual Entries to Contact the Registrar
February 9, 2026
School Contact Registration Deadline
March 11, 2026
Registration Deadline
April 7, 2026
Day of Fair at Bingemans in Kitchener
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