Students from the Halton District School Board (HDSB) delivered an extraordinary performance at the 2025 Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF), held earlier this month in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
As Canada’s largest annual STEM event, the CWSF brings together top young minds from across the country to showcase innovative projects and compete for prestigious awards – and this year, Halton students made a major impact.
Eleven students from HDSB elementary and secondary schools brought home 40 awards across multiple categories, celebrating excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics:
- Evan Budz, Grade 9 student at Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School for Development of an Autonomous Bionic Sea Turtle Robot for Ecological Monitoring using AI
- Best Project Award – Innovation
- The Beaty Centre for Species Discovery Award
- Excellence Award – Gold
- Challenge Award – Environment and Climate Change
- Youth Can Innovate Award
- European Union Contest for Young Scientists
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Lohitaksh, Grade 8 student at Bruce Trail Public School for Q-CaDD: Accelerating In Silico Methodologies with Quantum Computation and Machine Learning for EGFR
- The Actuarial Foundation of Canada Award
- Excellence Award – Silver
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Anish Rathod, Grade 12 student at Burlington Central High School for PIONEER: Pipe Inspection and Observation for Non-Destructive Evaluation and Environmental Review
- Engineering Innovation Award
- Excellence Award – Silver
- Dalhousie University Faculty of Science Entrance Scholarship
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- University of New Brunswick Canada-Wide Science Fair Scholarship
- University of Ottawa Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Jasmine Wang, Grade 10 student at Iroquois Ridge High School for Wildfire Prediction and Detection: Custom Data Pipeline, Transformer Model, and Web App integration
- Intact Climate Change Resilience Award
- Excellence Award – Silver
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Eva Duan and Taeyeon Eum, Grade 10 students at Oakville Trafalgar High School for InfectAlert: pH Sensitive Burn Wound Hydrogel Dressing
- Excellence Award – Bronze
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Claire Marsh, Grade 11 student at M.M. Robinson High School for Autism Identification Tool: An AI Approach to Reducing Diagnostic Barriers
- Excellence Award – Bronze
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- University of Ottawa Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Vivaan and Rahul, Grade 8 students at W. H. Morden Public School for The Power of Pectin: Attenuating Toxic By-Products for Enhanced Hydrogel Drug Delivery
- Excellence Award – Silver
- Challenge Award – Disease and Illness
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Imran Allarakhia, Grade 9 student at Abbey Park High School for CareBotix in Motion, Leveraging Advanced Imitation Learning and VLA Models for Humanoid Robotics
- Excellence Award – Gold
- Challenge Award – Digital Technology
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
- Maria Polyanska, Grade 9 student at Garth Webb Secondary School for PicoTrack: Solar Powered Real-Time Monitoring of Near-Stratospheric Conditions
- Excellence Award – Gold
- Youth Can Innovate Award
- Mount Allison University Entrance Scholarship
- Western University Entrance Scholarship
“The Halton District School Board is incredibly proud of our students, not only for their exceptional achievements at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, but for the creativity, commitment and innovative thinking they have demonstrated through their projects,” says Curtis Ennis, Director of Education for the HDSB. “These accomplishments reflect the outstanding talent of our students in STEM and the critical role this learning plays in sparking curiosity and innovation. In alignment with our Multi-Year Strategic Plan, students are connecting what they learn to real-world challenges – equipping them with the skills and mindset needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
If you have a news tip or story idea, you can now send us a heads up via email at:
- News1013@LocalRadio.ca (Milton)
- News1015@LocalRadio.ca (Orangeville)
- News92@LocalRadio.ca (South Simcoe)
- Rick.Sargent@LocalRadio.ca (Bolton)
If you’d like to get ahold of me personally, shoot me a message at Cameron.Wilkinson@LocalRadio.ca. We’re in the business of content creation, so no idea is a bad idea.
