More than 100 high school students, including 19 local students, earned awards at the 70^th Annual Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair (MSSEF) May 3-4 at MIT in Cambridge.

The students showcased their projects at the two-day event, competing with nearly 400 high school students with research and innovation projects from across the commonwealth, representing more than 70 Massachusetts schools.

Each year, the most outstanding young researchers and innovators are invited to participate, and they present their achievements to expert judges from academia and industry. This year they competed for more than $450,000 in college scholarships, internships and other prizes, including two patent awards from Fish & Richardson. Major cash prizes from $2,000 to $27,500 were provided by Sanofi Genzyme, Cabot Corporation, MathWorks and Moderna Therapeutics.

Through independent research and design projects in topics of interest to them, students “learn through doing and discovery,” a process that enables them to think like scientists and engineers, using real-world professional practices.

This year’s projects included Proton Beam Radiation Delivery, Using a Watch for Chemical Analysis, Predicting Opioid Use Disorder Using Machine Learning, Customized Insoles for Plantar Pressure Ulcers, Building an Artificial Pancreas, and Designing a Machine Learning Solution to Atrial Fibrillation.

This year’s first place winners included Jiwon Choi from St. Marks School; Adway Wadekar from St. John’s High School; Garima Prabhakar from Shrewsbury High School; and Anoop Patta from Westborough High School. Second-place winners were Arnay Mishra, Ajan Prabakar and Joshua Hollyer from Shrewsbury High School; Anoop Patta and Eshan Sane from Westborough High School; Kerrie Verbeek and Haley Dion from St. Mark’s School; and Morgan Raun and Olivia Rainville from Marlborough High School.

Third place winner were Ananthan Sadagopan from Westborough High School; Abby Genova and Lily Clardy from Hudson High School; Saad Mohsin from St. John’s High School; and Yuchen Wang from St. Mark’s School. Shrewsbury High School’s Neelasha Bhattacharjee received Honorable Mention.

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