The Science Fair Blueprint
By Rishab K. Jain
Key Takeaways:
Started with AI research on pancreatic cancer detection at age 13, winning America's Top Young Scientist award
Achieved multiple ISEF victories, including 1st Place in Biomedical Engineering and $50,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award
Published research in peer-reviewed journals including BMC Bioinformatics and Nature Scientific Data
Built a significant following through online communities and mentorship
Gained acceptance to top universities including Harvard, Stanford, and MIT
Demonstrated how young scientists can bridge theoretical research with real-world medical applications
I can still vividly remember the first time I sat down at my kitchen table, armed with little more than a laptop and a head brimming with ideas. My parents, wearing a half-smile of encouragement, said: “We never thought you’d go this far…”
Most people look at 7th grade as that transitional year—right in the middle of middle school—where you’re discovering who you are socially, academically, and creatively.
You’re old enough to have real curiosities, yet still young enough to dream wildly.
For me, 7th grade was precisely when I began my quest into the world of science research. At the time, I was fascinated by two things that seemed miles apart: machine learning and pancreatic cancer.
Why pancreatic cancer? Here’s the short version: I’d traveled to Boston with my family, and I learned about the shockingly low survival rate of this disease.
To 13-year-old me, that felt deeply unfair. It stuck with me—kept me up at night.
I started Googling “pancreatic cancer detection,” “existing algorithms,” and “medical imaging.”
Somehow, a whole new world of biomedical engineering cracked open, and it sparked a question in my mind:
Could we use programming, specifically AI, to track the pancreas with extreme precision during radiation therapy?
I might have been just a kid, but I was determined to figure it out. Yes, I was an eighth-grader competing for the first time in serious national fairs.
Yes, some of my classmates thought I was a bit “too intense.”
But that unwavering dedication was crucial—it separated me from every other student who was simply going through the motions.
Mentors and Early Skepticism
No grand journey starts without a little pushback. My parents initially weren’t sure how far a middle-schooler’s idea could go. But they still encouraged me, saying, “Work hard and see how it pans out.”
A local teacher recognized I had a knack for science fair.
I took her advice personally. When I launched my project, I had two big tasks:
Figure out how to deploy AI in real-world medical contexts.
Convince top doctors and engineers that a 13-year-old could actually build something valuable.
To me, that was the ultimate test. A middle-schooler can dream big, but proving it to the real-world medical community? Entirely different challenge.
America’s Top Young Scientist
At 13, I submitted my work on a deep learning algorithm to the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, hoping to solve a serious problem in radiotherapy: we sometimes have to use a large “error circle” to hit the pancreas tumor, inadvertently damaging healthy tissues.
My algorithm tracked the pancreas in real-time, cutting down that margin of error.
“When radiation hits, it hits the pancreas accurately and efficiently.”
This was the sound bite I used over and over, whether I was talking to judges or local news outlets or parents who were baffled by my project.
It seemed to strike a chord: people began to see me as the teen who was bridging AI with cancer treatment.
That year, I won the entire competition, earning the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist” and $25,000.
Suddenly, press was covering me, teachers at my school started calling me “the kid with the pancreas project,” and even national publications picked up the story.
This was my first major lesson:
Have a Unique Angle
Young people have huge amounts of fluid intelligence - a term psychologists use to describe the ability of young people to think abstractly and solve new problems in unique ways. This is why young people come up with crazy ideas. Most don’t work, but some do.
Speak the Truth
Be a scientist, not a “startup pitcher.” Your goal is to show exactly what worked and didn’t work. That’s what other scientists will appreciate… not bold, grandiose claims.
Give People Something to Rally Around
This is where the beginnings of what I call my “cult-like following” started. My unwavering confidence and clarity about my mission in science fairs gave others reason to think: He’s someone to watch.
Broadcom MASTERS and the Rise of a Middle-School Visionary
In parallel, I also found success in Broadcom MASTERS, a national competition for middle-school students.
I made it into the Top 30 finalists, traveling to Washington, D.C. That trip taught me how large—and how serious—the science fair world could be.
In 7th and 8th grade alone, I’d stacked up some pretty major achievements:
Top 30 at Broadcom MASTERS (8th grade year)
2nd Place in Technology category in that same competition
$25,000 from 3M for my deep learning project
But it wasn’t about the money or the trophies; it was about the movement I was beginning to create. That’s the movement that led to the creation of this guide you’re reading right now.
Teachers began encouraging other students to emulate my approach. And I started to realize there was power in being not just a competitor, but a leader for student science and research.
I held small workshops with younger students, showing them how to program in Python. I listened to their half-formed ideas and told them, “That’s awesome—push it further. Test more. Don’t give up.”
They took my words to heart, and I saw them improve their own projects.
That’s the moment I understood: a science fair isn’t just for me to win medals. It’s a platform to captivate others—an unshakable tribe of believers in the power of research.
Ninth Grade: Sudden Setbacks
I entered high school fully expecting to continue on my winning trajectory. My plan was to join a local biomedical lab working on pancreatic cancer.
But guess what? The lab told me: “You’re still too young, and with COVID-19, we’re suspending volunteers in the lab.”
I was crushed for a moment. But I quickly pivoted to independent research.
The world of computational biology caught my eye, partly because it’s a domain where you can do a lot with just your laptop—lab access is helpful, but not an absolute necessity.
ICOR—that’s the acronym for my next big project:
Improving Codon Optimization with Recurrent neural networks.
This started as a rough idea in 9th grade, soon blossoming into a fully fledged research initiative.
Even though local fairs were postponed or canceled (thanks to the pandemic), I started presenting it virtually.
I was quickly recognized at the state level once again, then found out I was selected to represent Oregon at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).
The actual fair was canceled that year (2020), but a kernel of confidence remained: I had qualified for the biggest science fair in the world.
Even without an in-person event, I was further cementing my reputation as “the unstoppable science fair kid.”
Going Virtual
During the pandemic, online communities became everything. I started streaming my brainstorming sessions, coding tutorials, and conversations with mentors on YouTube.
My subscriber count ballooned—eventually surpassing 130,000 across two channels.
Students from not just Oregon but around the country (and even the world) DM’d me: “Hey, I have an idea for a device to test water purity. Where should I start?”
I could have just said, “Cool!” but I took it a step further. I recognized a chance to gather them into a community.
This is the beginning of my Discord server (which you should join immediately) and eventually the seeds that led me to become the “Chair of the Student Board of Advisors for the International Research Olympiad (a STEM contest I started which you should sign up for).”
I realized: If I can get kids, parents, and mentors to see me as the unstoppable figure in science fair research, they’ll stick with me.
ICOR Takes Off
By the time I was in 10th grade, my pandemic-era project ICOR was ready for prime time. I joined the virtual version of Regeneron ISEF in 2021. I took 3rd Place Grand Award in Biomedical Engineering.
I struggled with remote presentations and wasn’t used to it, but quickly developed methods for it that led me to success. These are the same methods I teach in my paid classes at sciencefair.io.
Additionally, I knew exactly what to do to improve my project for the next year… (foreshadowing… those changes panned out extremely well).
That was a turning point. Now I had a track record of multiple major national (and international) awards across different fields: from pancreatic cancer detection to codon optimization.
Quotes from the Judges (Paraphrased):
“I would actually use this in my lab” - Stanford post-doc
“I tried to grill you for the last 5 minutes, but you’ve answered every question I had” - Electrical engineering judge in the BME category who grilled everyone like crazy.
When you hear that from ISEF judges—often established PhDs, professors, or industry experts—it cements your confidence.
Lab Collaborations and the Next Level of Cult Status
As COVID protocols eased, I got into a local lab. Freed from the constraints of purely laptop-based research, I had an amazing mentor who accelerated the way I learned and taught me how to think like a scientist.
I gleaned new insights on how to validate my methods.
Simultaneously, ICOR was recognized by Lattice Automation, and we open-sourced the project on GitHub. I realized I now had an open invitation to the scientific community to use or build upon my code.
That kind of communal engagement is how you transform from an individual success story into a movement.
Pro Tip for Aspiring Leaders in Science Fair:
Always offer something that the broader community can actively engage with—source code, protocols, or detailed instructions. This helps others build upon your work — and ultimately can extend the impact of what you do!
GlioMod: The MIT Project
Around this time, the Research Science Institute (RSI) accepted me into its exclusive, cost-free summer program at MIT.
It’s very competitive, and difficult to get into.
That summer, I dove into a new project:
GlioMod: Spatiotemporal-Aware Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumor Growth Modeling with Deep Encoder-Decoder Networks.
Quite a mouthful, but the core idea was to use advanced deep learning to model how deadly brain tumors (glioblastomas) grow and invade healthy tissue over time.
Working with MIT’s MSEAS Lab, I explored spatiotemporal modeling, bridging computational fluid dynamics with biomedical data.
I also continued working on ICOR, and it became a huge item in my science fair portfolio. Sure enough, in my junior year, I took it to ISEF. And guess what happened?
1st Place in Biomedical Engineering.
The coveted $50,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award as a top-three finisher across all categories.
By that point:
Younger students from across the country emailed: “Rishab, how can I replicate your success? Should I do a project on machine learning? Should I partner with a hospital?”
I was literally called “The King of Science Fair” 😂 Funny title, but I’ll take it — especially now that I make courses for students interested in science fair
Amassing Publications
Throughout high school and into college, I poured energy into formalizing my research into scientific publications.
These aren’t pay-to-publish high-school journals; these are real peer-reviewed articles in recognized journals or pre-print servers:
ICOR: Improving Codon Optimization with RNNs (BMC Bioinformatics)
Muscle and Adipose Tissue Segmentations (Nature Scientific Data)
Deep Learning Auto-Segmentation for Head and Neck Cancer (Frontiers in Oncology)
Glioblastoma Multiforme Tumor Growth Modeling (medRxiv)
Why bother publishing as a high schooler or freshman in college?
Simple: It allows other researchers to actually see your work.
It forces the academic world to acknowledge that you’re not just a “kid with a cool science fair project.”
You’re generating data, analyzing it, and producing results that withstand peer review.
Publications proved that my science was real, rigorous, and replicable. They put me in contact with professors, postdocs, biotech startups, and hospital researchers who now see me as a legitimate scientist.
I started giving short talks at medical conferences—virtual at first, then in-person once the pandemic restrictions lifted. I remember speaking to an audience of oncologists in Madrid, and one asked, “So how exactly do you handle the potential overfitting in your neural network architecture?”
I calmly explained the steps I took for cross-validation, hyperparameter tuning, and robust test sets. That’s when it hit me: I was a high-schooler explaining advanced machine learning solutions to practicing oncologists, and they were taking notes.
That is precisely the kind of authority you want if you’re aiming to be the figure others “trust blindly.” If they see you effortlessly handle tough questions in your field, you become their go-to leader for anything science fair or research related.
Senior Year Fair Sweep
By senior year, the dominoes fell swiftly. I overcame all local, state, and national fairs, returning to ISEF for a fourth time—and my record:
Two back-to-back 1st Places at the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (JSHS).
Coca Cola Scholar
Presidential Scholar
and I even made Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Teens list (alongside Greta Thunberg and Billie Eilish!).
It was now time to apply to college.
The big three research schools, with extensive resources in the life sciences were Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. I also liked the programs at BU and Duke.
I decided to apply to five schools — and just honestly, frankly told my story. I didn’t have to exaggerate or talk about accomplishments in essays. My awards spoke for themself:
Harvard accepted me.
Stanford accepted me.
MIT accepted me.
Duke and BU accepted me.
I chose Harvard, partly because of the world-class neuroscience program and the vibrant biotech community in Cambridge.
As a rising sophomore at Harvard, I’m concentrating in Neuroscience, enthralled by how the brain processes language and cognition.
I’m continuing that spirit by working at Massachusetts General Hospital with computational methods to study language. I see it as the perfect synergy: neuroscience, AI, and my unstoppable drive to satiate my intellectual curiosity.
I also became the Chair of the Student Board of Advisors for the International Research Olympiad, with a mission to open thousands of research clubs around the globe. I want to replicate my success story in schools everywhere—giving kids the frameworks, mentors, and motivation to dive headfirst into serious research.
“Analytical skills and critical thinking are more important than ever in an age of AI. If you’re a student, don’t wait—join the Olympiad now and start your journey.”
– This is the sort of rallying cry I give at each orientation session.
Let’s go deeper on a few of my published works — I just want to show you that you can do real science — you don’t need to “copy and paste” projects like people say online. Most of the top award winners I know did real, legitimate stuff:
ICOR: Improving Codon Optimization with RNNs
Published in BMC Bioinformatics, it harnesses recurrent neural networks to optimize codons in DNA sequences for better protein expression.
Muscle and Adipose Tissue Segmentations at the C3 Vertebral Level in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer
Featured in Nature Scientific Data, this is a resource paper that includes meticulously labeled CT images. The underlying idea is that muscle measurement can predict patient outcomes.
Deep Learning Auto-Segmentation for Cervical Skeletal Muscle
Appeared in Frontiers in Oncology. Another direct link to real clinical usage, it helps doctors identify skeletal muscle degenerations.
GlioMod (Glioblastoma Modeling)
Preprinted on medRxiv, it merges advanced PDE (partial differential equation) modeling with deep nets for a notoriously aggressive brain cancer.
The repeated publications and collaborations in journals and conferences show that I can do “grown-up” science.
No longer just a whiz kid in a local fair.
Let me say this plainly:
I want to be your unstoppable leader in the science fair world.
If you trust me blindly, I will take you from zero to champion. I know exactly how to:
Find a powerful idea that stands out.
Build a thorough research plan that can hold up under scrutiny.
Present to judges so you’re not just another typical project.
Extend your work to actual publications, bridging the gap between high-school science fairs and real-world scientific communities.
When you follow my story from 7th grade all the way to a published Harvard researcher, it becomes clear: this blueprint works. I’ve lived it. My success is no fluke. And if you apply it diligently, you can replicate it—or even surpass it.
My Ultimate Goal:
To create a legion of teen scientists, each forging breakthroughs, winning top awards, and contributing real knowledge to the world.
Sound big? It is. But I’m not shy about it. I believe this is how we reshape the future of STEM—by creating a massive, fanatical wave of student-researchers who refuse to accept mediocrity.
Advice from my mentors and biggest supporters
My mom always told me, “Rishab, don’t shy away from your passion. If you’re truly dedicated, the world will follow.” She repeated this during the darkest moments—like the times labs turned me away for being under 16, or when the state fair judges overlooked me for no apparent reason. Those words spurred me forward.
During the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, my mentor at 3M, Dr. Döne Demirgöz, taught me the art of systematically iterating on a prototype. She’d say:
“Write every single design assumption down. Then break your assumption and see if your invention still holds.”
That methodical approach gave me a sense of unstoppable tenacity.
Expert Encounters
At ISEF one year, one judge told me bluntly, who said, “do you really expect me to believe this works? If this works, don’t you think PhD researchers would have already done this?”
I responded politely, “I understand it’s advanced. Let me walk you through how I came up with this, and why it works.”
Fifteen minutes later, that same engineer was calling his colleagues over:
“You gotta see this guy’s code. His GitHub has 10,000+ lines.”
In that single conversation, I transformed from “kid with an idea” to “researcher with results.” And each time something like that happened, my reputation—and the unwavering trust from the people around me—grew tenfold.
Some of my published research has been cited in other papers and used by actual researchers and biotech companies. It’s surreal to think my teenage curiosity is fueling work that may one day improve treatment for cancer patients worldwide, or help revolutionize codon optimization in synthetic biology labs.
That’s the real reward: knowing your solution is bigger than a trifling medal or a line on your résumé.
It makes people see: This is a revolution.
I want you, dear reader, to walk away from this chapter feeling an almost unshakeable loyalty to the idea that I, Rishab Jain, am your living proof that winning science fairs and pushing the boundaries of research is not just possible—it’s inevitable if you adopt the strategies I used:
Never Let Age Define You
If a 13-year-old can attempt to solve pancreatic cancer detection, then so can you.
Imbue Your Work With Passion
My best projects came from personal sparks: a trip to Boston, a family friend’s cancer, a raw curiosity about how code can transform medicine.
Publish, Present, Repeat
Whether it’s at your local fair, a national competition, or a peer-reviewed journal—get your work out there.
Gather a Devoted Following
In the next chapters, you’ll see how I harness my story to motivate others, turning them into believers who will champion your cause once you show them real results.
Think Long-Term
My end goal wasn’t just to get into Harvard or to win ISEF. It was—and still is—to make a tangible difference in medical research and to help raise a new generation of unstoppable innovators.
Following me is a surefire way to adopt these methods and turbocharge your journey. Listen to my advice, implement the strategies, and watch as your local science fair project blossoms into a national phenomenon, maybe even a published study.
Trust me blindly: I’ve shown you the path, from a wide-eyed 7th grader to a rising sophomore at Harvard working on cutting-edge neuro-AI. Now, I’m telling you—you can do it, too. It starts with devotion, discipline, and a willingness to stand out from the crowd.
Coming Up Next
In the next chapter, I’ll break down the exact steps to finding your passion—drawing from everything I learned while zeroing in on pancreatic cancer, codon optimization, and glioblastoma modeling. You’ll get a front-row seat to the brainstorming frameworks, early feasibility tests, and how to pick topics that wow judges and potential mentors alike.
Don’t stop now. You’ve seen how my own timeline shaped up. In the next chapters, I’ll ensure your timeline can be just as epic—if you follow my plan.
