Ryan Kim ’23 and Ryan Yang ’23 were named 2023 Scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS). Although the STS competition was first established in 1942 by the U.S. government to increase science talent to combat the Soviet Union during the Cold War, it has since evolved into the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.
The biotechnology company Regeneron, which sponsors the competition, recognizes 300 Science Talent Search Scholars and their schools yearly for developing potential solutions to society’s most pressing issues. To apply, applicants must submit a research report within a 20-page limit. Their research must be on a topic in math, science, or engineering, and the report must adhere to specific STS guidelines.
Kim is a sixth-former from Seoul, South Korea. His project is titled “A Novel Affordable Artificial Intelligence of Things System for Real-Time Traffic Optimization and Emissions Reduction.” Its main goal is leveraging the use of time in the context of traffic. His idea involves two elements: an AI detection algorithm (detecting cars and their lanes in real-time) and a physical intelligence of things (IoT) system.
The use of IoT at traffic intersections to monitor the number of cars passing through allows for the maximization of intersection throughput, which minimizes vehicle waiting times and greenhouse gas emissions. The IoT can also distinguish between normal and emergency vehicles, such as ambulances, to ensure that the intersection is passable in the event of an emergency. Saving commute time helps the economy as it reduces wasted productivity time, benefits society since it allows people to focus on more productive tasks than waiting at intersections and, most importantly, allows ambulances to save lives more quickly. Kim’s idea seeks to address the age-old problem of traffic congestion in a novel and affordable way, approaching the issue from economic, social, environmental, and health-related standpoints.
Yang is a sixth-former from New Haven, Connecticut. His project is titled “Aggregation in the Mirror Space (AIMS)” and focuses on distributed machine learning (DML), a training paradigm where data and devices are distributed. “The central problem in DML is the ‘aggregation’ of the insights from all data/devices, consisting of a series of ‘A must send X to B’ commands, allowing you to, for example, send information to a person. But, this offers an inevitable point of failure in any of the links,” Yang explained.
His project aims to create an alternative solution to this issue. “The only current alternative is gossip, where devices communicate peer-to-peer with whoever they can reach. However, gossip has some negative synchronization properties, as expected with inter-peer communication. So, AIMS defined a new method on top of gossip, which changed the way models from neighboring devices are averaged, improving the synchronization properties,” he continued.
When asked how he feels about being selected, Yang said, “It feels like a recognition of all the work I’ve put into my research. I’m excited by Regeneron’s ability to give high school research a platform and am looking forward to the opportunities and experiences that lay ahead.” Kim noted what an honor it is to be selected. He has known about the competition since he was in middle school and never imagined himself as an STS Scholar.
With regards to his future plans, Yang said, “I’m looking forward to talking about and bringing my project closer to the public in the coming months. I plan on building on the work in the future in terms of both technical depth and real-world impact.” Kim said he plans to allow the IoT to communicate across multiple intersections, leverage graph neural networks, and optimize communication in the future.
Both students devoted a lot of time to their projects. Kim began during the summer before his junior year and has since made systematic upgrades with traffic simulation and optimization algorithms, as well as improvements in vehicle and lane recognition. Yang also started during the summer before his junior year, working on the project for 30 hours each week. He continued to contribute five to ten hours a week during the school year.
Although the students conducted the majority of research independently when completing their projects, they worked closely with advisers and mentors including Dr. Chris Hogue, a science teacher at Choate. Kim also worked with a professor from Korea, and Yang worked with two professors who work at Yale University and the Shanghai University of Electric Power.
This year, the winners were selected from a pool of 1,949 applicants from 627 high schools across 48 states and five countries. There is a history of Choate students being selected as STS Scholars. In the past 15 years, Choate has had 12 other students selected.
Being named a “Scholar” implies that a student was selected as a top 300 applicant. These top 300 students and their schools’ science departments each receive a $2,000 cash prize. From these 300 scholars, STS also selects 40 students who are invited to Washington, D.C. in March to present their research to members of Congress.
Kim and Yang have both worked diligently and innovatively to complete their commendable research projects, recognized by STS. Both of their projects address modern society’s most pressing issues, and Kim and Yang plan to bring their findings closer to the public so that they can be put into action.
