SRP Students Present Research at 2025 Science Symposium

Students in the Science Research Project presented their work last week at Regis’s 27th annual Science Symposium. For the participating students, each of whom prepared a poster-board presentation to share with attendees, the symposium marked the culmination of many months of independent research.

This year's symposium featured two keynote speeches. Alain-Christian Pawa '26 spoke about his research into developing convolutional neural networks to identify diabetic retinopathy. Earlier this year, Pawa presented his research at the New York State Science and Engineering Fair, where he earned an honorable mention, placing him among the top finishers in the Translational Medical Science category.

Ciro Salcedo '20, a Ph.D student in quantum science and engineering at Princeton University who studies the evolution of complex quantum systems, also spoke about his research. Salcedo, who was an SRP student during his time at Regis, answered questions from current students about his experience and shared some of the advice he's learned from his own mentors.

"Do things with intention, keep showing up, be skeptical, pay it forward, work with others, and don't let not knowing stop you from doing what's interesting," Salcedo said. "I can't wait to see what you all do next."

Other SRP projects this year include Lucas Ciordas '27's work processing and analyzing genomic and protein data to develop classification models that identify whether a given genome or protein is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Dylan Ehret '26's analysis of how turbine blade upgrades designed to improve power generation and efficiency affect the long-term structural stability of tidal turbines, and Nicholas Bettwy '27's use of images taken of a gravitationally bound star system to obtain measurements of the two closely positioned stars and more accurately model their orbit.

The Science Research Project is an intensive program open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors that gives students interested in scientific research the opportunity to investigate projects of their own design in addition to their normal course load. This year, 39 students participated in SRP.