Hannah Jansen, a senior at Patriot High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park, took home a grand prize award at the 2025 Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair (VSSEF).

Jansen won first place in the Engineering Technology and Sustainable Design category and earned two special awards: the VSSEF Grand Prize Award and the Leidos 2025 Young STEM Research Award.

In addition to Jansen’s achievements, Prince William County Public Schools’ students took second place in the Animal Sciences and Behavioral and Social Sciences categories, honorable mention in four additional categories, and received two special awards: the Leidos Award for Excellence in Computational Science and Society for In Vitro Biology.

Congratulations to the following students:

Grand Prize/First Place

• Engineering Technology and Sustainable Design: Hannah Jansen, senior at Patriot High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • Parametric Optimization of Propeller Guards for Enhanced Hydrodynamic Performance and Acoustic Profile of Underwater Vehicles

Second Place

• Animal Sciences: Isabelle Hoover, senior at The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park; Joshua Rizer, senior at Osbourn Park High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park; and Zainab Soofi, senior at Patriot High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • Discovering the Effect of Senna alata on the Expression of Cep-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans  
    
• Behavioral and Social Sciences: Madison Nepomuceno, senior at Gainesville High School
  • The Extent to Which Left-Handed Individuals Out-Perform Their Right-Handed Peers: A Quasi-Experimental Design

Honorable Mention

• Cell, Molecular and Computational Biology and Biochemistry: John Eckman, senior at Gar-Field High School
  • Investigating the Impacts of Ailanthone on Plant Growth

• Chemistry: Andrew Funk and Sofia Wojcik, seniors at The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • Aerogel as a Water Purifier: A Continuation

• Microbiology: Natan Girma, Bilal Khan, Naman Patel, juniors at Osbourn Park High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • The Effect of Artificial Sweeteners on Escherichia Coli in the Gut Microbiome

• Physics, Math and Astronomy: Anuj Dahal, Kevin DiMattina and Oguzkhan Kutlan, juniors who attend Forest Park High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • A Design and Development of Rocket Nozzles for High-Pressure Atmospheres

Special Awards

• VSSEF Grand Prize Award, Leidos 2025 Young Virginia STEM Research Award: Hannah Jansen, senior at Patriot High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • Parametric Optimization of Propeller Guards for Enhanced Hydrodynamic Performance and Acoustic Profile of Underwater Vehicles

• Leidos Award for Excellence in Computational Science: Yashvir Sabharwal, senior at Battlefield High School
  • BrainSync: Advanced Neural Decoding With Functional MRI and EEG for Reconstruction of Visual Perception in Neurological States

• Society for In Vitro Biology: Samuel Gebeyehu, Victor Olabode, and Victoria Olabode, juniors at Gainesville High School and The Governor’s School @ Innovation Park
  • The Efficiency of Microbial Fuel Cells in Producing Electricity in Differing Environmental Conditions