The 63rd Annual RI Science and Engineering Fair (RISEF) was held on March 26, 27 and 31, and featured the projects of 362 students. Representing more than 50 junior and senior high schools, these students worked on their own or paired up in teams to produce 336 projects.

“There’s definitely more technology projects,” said Mark Fontaine, director of RISEF. “We see things on genetics and biochemistry. We must remember computers were new in the early 1990s.”

Fontaine, who became the director in 1996, said that the growth he’s seen in the fair has been mostly positive, though there have been some negative trends.

“We’re seeing about a 60 to 40 split between parochial and public schools, respectively,” he said. “There are more public schools than parochial schools in the state, and we would like to see more involvement from the public sector.”

Fontaine thinks one of the reasons public schools have represented a smaller percentage of competitors is because of hikes in entrance fees.

This year, their title sponsor for three years dropped their sponsorship and left the fair to run solely on entrance fees and assorted donations.

On a budget of $15,000, RISEF provides all competitors with Olympic style medals, a venue at CCRI in which to display their work and sends the top two Senior Division winners on an all-expenses-paid trip to Internationals in Los Angeles.

“It’s a big stretch. We’re very happy with what we do, but we’re limited by funding. Eventually we’d like to give out $5,000 scholarships to our winners, and a $5,000 grant to the schools the winners come from. It would be a great incentive for schools to sign up,” said Fontaine.

Despite the strains on RISEF’s purse strings, Fontaine says the event is still a source of excitement and education for the students.

“Their enthusiasm hasn’t changed. It’s another outlet for kids to explore. When I see them all smiling and displaying their projects to the public, I think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why I do this. Look at all these kids doing awesome things,’” he said.

The students displayed their projects on March 26 and 27, and judges and members of the public were able to inspect their work. Roughly 135 teachers, educators, doctors, engineers and professionals in the science industry served as judges.

Warwick bronze medallists from the Junior Division included: Sydney Marotte, Jeremy Beecher, Linden Padien, Jessica Russo, Christopher Johnson, Juliana Fielding, Alison Altshuler, Mary Kate Agnew, Leah Fitz-Simon, Gianna Guilotte and Daniel Reph. Silver medallists are: James Williams, Audry Cryan, Nick Jones, Robert Guidice, Scott Lepizzera, Joseph Christianson, Patrick Flanagan, David Augustyn, Elisabeth Richardson and Rebecca Malachowski. Gold medallists in the Junior Division are: Justine Pollard, Robert Pierce and Alexander Rajotte.

In the Senior Division, Warwick high schoolers Stephanie Abbott, Emily Degnan, Christian Travers and Dane Granja took home bronze medals. Silver medallists are: Casey Adams, Emily Almonte, Jonathan Andrews, Jose Baez, Christopher Bianco, Sean Conti, Ryan Cox, Katie Evans, Rachel Gousie, Kristen Hyle, Sean Kelly, Robert Legare, Justin Matrone, Max Rademacher, Michael Niederberger, Michael Solomon and Liam Watkinson. Amy Sevigny, Stephen Couture and Shawn McAssey took home gold medals.

The participants were narrowed down to the top 10 middle school (Junior Division) projects and the top 10 high school (Senior Division) projects.

From Warwick’s Gorton School, Sarah Gold and Jacob Harris, both also gold medallists, made it into the top 10 in the Junior Division.

From the top 10, a smaller panel of professionals and teachers chose the winners, and on March 31, the top two in each division were announced.

In the Junior Division, Morgan Patridge and Helena Shea, a team from St. Philomena School, won for their study of led content in American-made versus Chinese-made jewelry. Emma Clerx from St. Margaret also won in this Division for her project on watershed protection.

In the Senior Division, Cassidy Laidlaw of Barrington High School took top honors with his computer algorithms on traffic patterns and flow. Daniel Ling, from East Greenwich High School, was the other Senior Division champion. His project focused on silver and gold nanotubes and their relationship to increasing green proteins. He entered the contest independently, but was partially sponsored by his school.

Ling and Laidlaw will now venture to the Society for Science and the Public’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, Calif. The fair will be held from May 8 to 13. Ling and Laidlaw will present the same projects they did locally. This time, they will be competing against 1,600 finalists from 57 foreign countries and the U.S.

In addition to the Best in Fair awards, there were two special honors given to students. One was the Sue Carcieri award, given to a junior high student whose project had a local focus. Emily Gleason of St. Philomena School took home this award for her study of acidified salt water. The Governor’s Award is also for a project of local focus, but it is awarded to a high school student. Gianna Jasinski from La Salle, who was the Senior Division Alternate champion, won the Governor’s Award for her study on using bacteria for remediation of oil spills.

Governor Chafee was in attendance at the awards ceremony to speak to the participants. The competitors also got congratulatory letters from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

“It’s important because it shows the kids that people are coming to see them. But we still need more coverage of this event. We have almost 400 kids doing fabulous work and no one really knows but their parents.”

For those headed to the International competition in May, their work will be seen and judged by professionals in the industry who have earned their M.D. and/or Ph.D in a specific area of scientific study. If they win the top award of “Best in Category,” they will return to Rhode Island with a $75,000 prize. There are also a multitude of other smaller monetary awards, totaling no more than $4 million.