Real-Time Assessment of Deteriorative Airborne Risks

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Siyaa Poddar · Chandler, Arizona
Regeneron Young Scientist Award ($75,000) · Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair · 2025

Abstract

Low-cost detectors for toxic silica and uranium dust, built from colour-changing chemistry stabilised inside metal-organic frameworks, developed with Indigenous communities near abandoned mines in the US Southwest in mind.

Why it worked

ResearchForge's reading of the public record — not the students' words, and not the judges' reasoning.

A colour change is readable without instruments, training, or power. For monitoring in places that have none of those, that is not a simplification — it is the whole design requirement.

Key methods

Metal-organic framework synthesis
Colorimetric indicator stabilisation
Silica and uranium dust detection
Low-cost detector fabrication

What to take from this

ResearchForge's reading of the public record — not the students' words, and not the judges' reasoning. Borrow the habits and decisions, never the project itself.

Let the deployment context set the output format; a number nobody can read is not a measurement
Materials chemistry becomes an environmental-justice project when you choose where it has to work

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Compiled by ResearchForge from the Society for Science public award announcement linked on this record. Names, hometowns, project titles and reported results are as published. The "why it worked" and "what to take from this" notes are ResearchForge's editorial reading of that public record — they are not statements by the students and not the judges' rationale. All rights to the original projects remain with their authors; no project materials are rehosted here.