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Winning projects

What strong projects actually look like — the question they asked, the design that survived review, and the one decision that made the difference.

Archive entries are summaries compiled for study. Read them for how a project was structured, argued, and defended — not as a template to reproduce. Copying someone else's project is the one thing that will end yours.

19 projects

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MCMC Sampling of Origami and Linkages

Hikaru Kuribayashi

Grand award · Regeneron ISEF 2026

Simulation software that applies Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling to the configuration space of folded structures and mechanical linkages, exploring many folding states at once instead of following a single path. The intended applications are compact deployable structures such as satellite solar sails and folded medical devices.

  • origami
  • computational-geometry
  • simulation
  • +2
Physics & AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy
advanced

Nanocellulose Hydrosponges for 6PPD-Q Removal

Lakshmi Agrawal

First place · Regeneron ISEF 2026

Reported roughly 80% removal of the target contaminant, using 85% less energy and costing 98% less than the alternatives it was compared against.

  • water-treatment
  • 6ppd-quinone
  • nanocellulose
  • +2
Chemistry
advanced

RetinaMind

Edward Kang

First place · Regeneron STS 2026

An AI screening tool that reads retinal images for patterns associated with autism and ADHD, paired with cellular models built to examine the genetic factors that might explain the association.

  • medical-imaging
  • machine-learning
  • retina
  • +2
Biomedical & Health ScienceTranslational Medical Science
advanced

Solvability of Equations in Elementary Functions

Nikola Veselinov

First place · Regeneron ISEF 2026

A new theorem giving conditions under which an equation cannot be solved in elementary functions, developed by combining ideas from topology, symmetry and Galois theory.

  • pure-mathematics
  • galois-theory
  • topology
  • +1
Mathematics
advanced

A compression model for protein structure comparison

Jerry Xu

Fourth place · Regeneron STS 2026

A model that compresses a protein's molecular features into a compact numerical representation, so that structures can be compared efficiently without losing the features that matter.

  • protein-structure
  • representation-learning
  • bioinformatics
  • +1
Computer ScienceComputational Biology and Bioinformatics
advanced

Capturable Carbon Dioxide to Save Our Bees

Aakash Manaswi

Third place · Regeneron ISEF 2026

Reported mite elimination as effective as pesticide treatment, without pesticide residues, alongside improved hive health measures.

  • beekeeping
  • varroa
  • pest-management
  • +1
BiologyAnimal Sciences
advanced

MXene-Based RFID Tags for Plastic Waste Sorting

Kevin Sun

Third place · Regeneron ISEF 2026

Radio-frequency identification tags printed from conductive MXene material that identify a plastic's type during sorting and then dissolve during standard recycling instead of contaminating the output stream.

  • recycling
  • mxene
  • rfid
  • +2
Materials Science
advanced

Temperley-Lieb Diagrams for Quantum Systems

Rachel Chen

Third place · Regeneron STS 2026

A diagrammatic representation of interacting quantum particle systems, using point-and-line diagrams to make the influence of magnetic fields visible in the structure itself.

  • quantum-mechanics
  • diagrammatic-algebra
  • temperley-lieb
  • +1
Mathematics
advanced

The unrestricted finite factorization property

Jonathan Du

Finalist · Regeneron STS 2026

Work in factorization theory on algebraic systems whose elements may factor in many ways or in none, extending the theory of when factorizations are finite.

  • abstract-algebra
  • factorization
  • ring-theory
  • +1
MathematicsPure Mathematics