Syosset Seniors Named Semifinalists in Siemens Competition

Three Syosset High School seniors – Reva Abrol, Kaveh Issapour and Eric Song – have been honored as semifinalists in the prestigious 2013-2014 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. 

Eric and Reva worked on their project with their chemistry teacher, Brian Belanger. The project, which was conducted using the high school’s laboratory research equipment and resources, consisted of constructing a nonintrusive consumer-friendly acoustic device to determine fruit ripeness in cantaloupes.

The apparatus was used to generate vibrational frequencies through the fruit, which were recorded using audio spectrum analysis software. Sound measurements were compared to sugar contents to confirm the correlation between acoustic resonance and ripeness. 

Kaveh conducted research over the summer at Stony Brook University, in conjunction with Krishana Raghubeer from Lawrence High School and Noah Davis of Port Jefferson High School, and under the advisement of Dr. Miriam Rafailovich and Rebecca Isseroff. 

The team’s project, “Improving Organic Polymer Solar Cell Efficiency by Increasing 
Active Layer Organization via PSS and PMMA channels and Graphene,” sought to 
optimize the process of making organic solar cells by organizing the structure of the solar device in order to improve its efficiency. They added a polymer to the basic solar cells, allowing the transfer of electrons to take place more smoothly and therefore be a more efficient sample.