From curious 9th grader to 1st place science fair winner and state qualifier
Avyay built a multi-model AI pipeline predicting time-to-onset of respiratory disease from combined air pollution exposure and genetic susceptibility, using WHO Global Air Quality data with GEO gene expression datasets. He compared Kaplan-Meier, Cox Proportional Hazards, AFT, Random Survival Forests and DeepSurv with SHAP explainability for clinically actionable predictions. Higher pollution accelerated disease onset, especially in genetically susceptible individuals.
AI & Computational Biology
1st Place Science Fair and State Qualifier
Twin Cities Regional Science Fairs, 2026
Avyay G., YRI Fellow
A 9th grader passionate about AI and healthcare with no prior research or publication experience.
1st place science fair winner with advanced AI research, qualified for state competition.
“YRI helped me integrate air pollution data with genetic susceptibility to build AI models predicting respiratory disease risk. My research won 1st place at my science fair, something I never imagined achieving in 9th grade.”
1st place in category at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fairs, March 2026
Won 4 ribbons and qualified for the state science fair
USMA Special Award for Best Use of SI Units
Compared 5 or more survival models including Random Survival Forests and DeepSurv
Predicted 28% faster disease onset with high pollution exposure
Aarush Mahajan, 3rd Place globally, Project Green Challenge 2025