Twenty-three Friends Academy students participated in the 2026 Long Island Science Engineering Fair (LISEF) and presented their projects across an array of specialized areas, including plant sciences, energy, physics, biology, and computer sciences.
A competition for the most advanced high school science projects, LISEF provides students with the opportunity to present their findings to judges who hail from local universities, scientific institutions, and professions within given fields.
Five projects from Friends Academy — worked on by seven Upper School students and three Middle School students — received honors across all three divisions of the competition.
In the highly selective second round of the varsity division, juniors Aleena Zaidi and Anthony Yu earned honorable mention for their project, “Improving Enteral Tube Care: Testing Methods to Clear Nutritional Formula Blockages Against a Novel Approach.”
In the JV division, two students received third-place medals while three others received honorable mention.
Junior Aidan Lee placed third for his project, “Early Failure Prediction in Hydraulic Systems Using Machine Learning Long-Short Term Memory Networks and Multisensor Time-Series Data.”
Sophomore Sarah Khan placed third for her project, “Comparison of Fascicular Network Topology in Paired Human Cervical and Thoracic Vagus Nerves via Morphometric Micro-CT Analysis.”
The three students who received honorable mention — freshmen Olivia Hang, Christina Yin, and Jaya Gambhir — worked on a project titled, “Determining Quantities of Microplastics in 25 Home Tap Water Samples Throughout Long Island and New York City and Testing a Novel Solution.”
Three Middle School students received honorable mention for their group project in the Junior Innovators Challenge, which is open to students in grades 6–8.
Seventh-graders Jet Holmes, Timothee Pelletier, and Armaan Walia presented their findings, “The Effect of Flywheel Mass on the Rotational Consistency and RPM of a Single-Piston Air Engine.”
All students who received LISEF honors worked on their projects in Ms. Rebecca Glavan’s Science Research class.
Earlier in the year, senior Julang Wang was one of 300 scholars worldwide to be named as a semifinalist in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search 2026. He is also a student in Ms. Glavan’s Science Research class.
His groundbreaking work, “Localized Metaresonators for Mid-Wave Infrared Spatial Light Modulators,” was selected from more than 2,600 projects entered by students at 826 high schools across 46 states, Washington, D.C., the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and 16 countries, including China.
To celebrate all of the students’ success in science, Friends Academy and Ms. Glavan will host the school’s inaugural Science Research Symposium on May 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. inside the Kumar Wang Library. The evening will feature keynote speakers, poster presentations, Q&A sessions, and refreshments. The event is open to students, families, alumni, and the general community.
Matt Gagne
