|
|
Maharishi School sophomore wins two important competitions When last we heard from Pranav Chhalliyil, he had just competed in the INTEL International Science Fair and won third place in the Microbiology category. Not one to rest on his laurels, Pranav moved on to another prestigious, global competition, the 2017 International BioGENEius Challenge. "The BIO International Convention (BIO) attracts 16,000 biotechnology and pharma leaders who come together for one week of intensive networking to discover new opportunities and promising partnerships. BIO brings together a wide spectrum of life science and application areas including drug discovery, biomanufacturing, genomics, biofuels, nanotechnology and cell therapy." As part of the event, Pranav participated in a “fast pitch” format competition called Gene Pool. Each young scientist has only sixty seconds to explain who they are, the problem their research solves, and the global importance of their work. Preparing this "elevator pitch" helps students to use their face to face communication skills in a brief, effective, and captivating way that will serve them well throughout their scientific and entreprenurial careers. Pranav recalls, “The Gene Pool competition was intense. They played intense music, just like Shark Tank, and randomly selected us. To make it worse, the host had mentioned that since there was tough competition, everyone was told to ask tough questions! Many biotechnology company CEOs, BioTech researchers, and some medical doctors had attended the event and asked complicated questions. I was glad that I could answer questions asked by the experts in the field. Most of them were celebrities in the field and very elite people!” We are pleased to announce that Pranav stayed cool under pressure and won the 2017 International BioGENEius Challenge GENE Pool Competition! Another aspect of the BioGENEius experience where Pranav earned accolades was the 2017 Global Healthcare Challenge. This part of the competition focuses on the medical applications for each participants research. "Student competitors were evaluated on the quality of their research in biomedical biotechnology, and assessed on their presentations and ability to handle questions regarding their research and general scientific knowledge. In addition, each student’s research was judged on the potential commercial and practical applications of their project." In order to present at the Global Healthcare Challenge, Pranav first earned the Championship in the Biotechnology competition at the 2017 Iowa State Science and Technology Fair. Several young scientists form the Iowa State Fair, including Pranav, were nominated to compete in the 2017 International BioGENEius Challenge. Pranav was the only one selected from this pool of nominees to represent the State of Iowa! Pranav was the National Winner of the 2017 Global Healthcare Challenge, as well as an International Finalist. He was the youngest finalist at the BioGENEius Challenge and at the Bio Convention.
© Copyright 2017 Maharishi School
|
|
