After spending a weekend in Reno packed with competition, discussion, and labwork, junior Neil Movva placed 2nd out of 16 contestants at the Northern California/Western Nevada Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS), earning the chance to compete at the national symposium at Washington D.C. in late April.

Neil’s project, titled “A Novel Use of IR Light in Eye Tracking Systems,” proposes a way to use computers through eye movements. Though eye-tracking systems do exist, Neil has built one that is much more efficient by adding IR light while also lowering the cost of the device.

The project won first place in the engineering category at the 2013 Synopsys Science fair.

“The highlight was seeing it type out ‘Hello World’ on the keyboard just using my eyes after months of working on it,” Neil said.

Neil was introduced to JSHS in the winter of sophomore year by research teacher Chris Spenner. He started at the school level, presenting his work to Dr. Smriti Koodanjeri, head of the school level competition, and to four other members of the science department: Spenner, Dr. Miriam Allersma, Dr. Matthew Harley, and Scott Pflaumer, to secure a spot at the upcoming regionals.

Neil and two other Upper School students, Madhu Nori (11), Vikas Bhetanabhotla (12), were chosen to represent the school at the Berkeley Regional on Feb. 6. The three students competed individually against approximately 80 other students in the area and were judged by a five judge panel from various fields.

Neil was chosen as one of 16 semifinalists to attend the Northern California/Western Nevada symposium on March 6 to 8 in Reno, Nevada. The first day of the event involved visiting and working in a lab for six hours; Neil chose to work in the Electrical Engineering lab at the University of Reno. After an introduction to analog circuit design by the host professor and tour of the engineering buildings given by a few graduate students, Neil had the chance to build his own circuit. He then visited the campus robotics lab, where he was introduced to about 50 university students who were working to build a maze-navigating robot for an upcoming competition.

“It was a unique, highly personalized experience,” Neil said. “I got to learn what people were doing at university and how classes would be like at the university level and I’m glad I got the chance to attend.”

In addition to visiting labs, attendees also had the chance to talk to professors and industry professionals, as well as listen to several keynote speakers.

The second day of the event included presentations given by the 16 semifinalists to about 200 other students attending the event. Each semifinalist was allotted 20 minutes for presentation and a Q&A session and was judged by a panel of 15 judges from various backgrounds.

“It was exciting because you don’t have the chance to see student research until you hear them give a talk. It was an entirely different scene that you don’t get at Synopsys,” Neil said. “JSHS was refreshing because you could see kids give real scientific talks meant to appeal to their audience and share their findings.”

On the final day of the symposium, all 16 semifinalists were recognized. The top 8 were ranked, Neil placing 2nd and winning $1500. Placing 2nd earned him the chance to present and compete at the national level, while 3rd, 4th, and 5th place were given the chance to display a poster to share their findings.

While excited to see how he will compete at the national level, he is most excited to meet other students interested in research.

“I get the chance to meet kids from across the nation and build networks with other kids that have the same passion of doing research and presenting their work to their peers and meeting those kids is always interesting,” he said.

Neil will compete at the national symposium at Washington D.C. from April 23 to 27 in an all-expenses paid trip. He will have the opportunity to compete for awards totaling $600,000.