RKYHS is proud to report that three teams of RKYHS students placed on top in the New Jersey Academy of Science high school symposium at Kean University. Eleventh grader Melanie Huppert and 12th grader Naomi Rosenbluth came in first in the Plant Science category. Twelfth graders Jonah Klein and Aidan Korish came in second place in the computational science category, and eleventh graders Mati Fischer and Lila Levenson came in 3rd place in the Engineering category.
Earlier in May, RKYHS student groups presented their original research to representatives of NJAS in a symposium of work from the RKYHS SRTI (Scientific Research Training Institute). Since NJAS’ annual symposium for high school students across the state took place on a Saturday, NJAS accommodated our school’s participation by holding a “satellite symposium” at the school, knowing what a high caliber of work the students at RKYHS produce, sending NJAS representatives to judge the work. They selected a handful of students’ presentations for consideration for NJAS awards. In addition to live presentations at the RKYHS symposium, the students provided an electronic copy of their printed posters and a pre-recorded audio or video presentation for the NJAS judges for the Saturday competition.
Rosenbluth and Huppert won for their project “A Linked DNA and Image Database for Real-Time Pollen Species Identification.” Klein and Korish won for their “Automated Real Time Identification and Quantification of Pollen,” and Fischer and Levenson won for their “Compact Urban Wind System for Scalable Clean Energy Generation” project.
In February, the students working on both pollen projects presented their work at the 2025 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) and World Allergy Organization (WAO) joint meeting in San Diego, an international conference of scientists and physicians. They were the only high school students to present, impressing the convention hall with their high level of work.
Their groundbreaking research on real-time airborne pollen identification had not only earned them a spot at this prestigious event with two accepted papers, but also saw one of their papers selected as a “featured presentation”—meaning it was recognized among the top 3% out of nearly 1,000 submitted papers. This achievement highlighted the growing national reputation of the RKYHS Scientific Research Training Institute (SRTI) program, which is redefining how young minds engage in science through authentic scientific research.
