![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
11th research symposium introduces workshops
Middle school students talk to a representative at a booth at the annual Harker Research Symposium. The 11th research symposium was held on April 9.
May 5, 2016
Around 650 students, parents, alumni and visitors attended the 11th annual Harker research symposium, which centered around machine learning, predictive analytics and data science, on April 9.
The Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) club held the symposium. At the symposium, students presented research, corporate exhibitors showcased products and keynote speakers lectured on topics pertaining to the themes of the syms posium.
Unlike in previous years, this year’s symposium also offered four pre-registered, interactive workshops.
“The vision of the symposium has always been to mimic a real science conference that any scientist would attend,” said upper school science department chair and WiSTEM club adviser Anita Chetty. “I believe that by having workshops this year, our students can look on this aa true, complete science conference.”
Three of the workshops were geared towards upper and middle school students. These included an Introduction to Bioinformatics workshop held by Dr. Marcos Woehrmann, parent of Maxwell Woehrmann (10); a Make Your Own Speaker workshop held by upper school physics teacher Scott Pflaumer and a Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics workshop held by Somnath Banerjee, parent of Sumantro Banerjee (9).
“I think it’s so much cooler to actually build a speaker yourself than to hear someone else talk about how it works,” Pflaumer said.
Younger children could participate in a variety of hands-on activities as well, such as a pre-registered lego robot workshop and an aquarium full of sea animals for students to touch.
“You have to show each person each creature, let them touch it and explain their significance, so that really contributed to the interactivity,” Raymond Banke (9), who managed the touch tank, said.
This year, attendees could also interact with student presenters and keynote speakers through Evenium’s ConnexMe app, which allowed audience members to submit and vote on questions.
Next year’s symposium will center around artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on May 4, 2016.
