U of U holds first fully in-person Science and Engineering Fair since 2019

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah is finalizing its 2024 Science and Engineering Fair, and held it for the first time fully in-person since 2019.

The event was held at the Crocker Science Center on campus and included students from fifth grade to high school. Home-schooled, private school, charter school students, and students from the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese are included with students from Tooele, South Summit, Salt Lake, Park City, Murray, Granite, and Canyons school districts.

Each student prepares a research project and presents their findings to a panel of judges. Once the judges deliberate, top finalists are chosen based on grade level and category.

“We encourage students and teachers to let students pick their own project. There are some teachers who would want to assign students to do a specific project — we want students to pick an area or science of engineering that they’re passionate about and do something they love,” said Program Manager Jody Oostema.

High school senior winners will be eligible to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition, according to its website. The annual fair is held in May and collects more than 1,500 students from over 65 countries. The 2024 science fair will be held in Los Angeles.

The winners of the 2024 U of U Science and Engineering Fair were recently announced. The students selected to move forward to the international fair are three students from West High School, Aidan Yu, Mingchuan Cheng and Aadhi Umamageswaran; and two students from The Waterford School, Sierra Sun and Sahil Shah.

The university stated the 2025 fair will be held in the same building on March 10 to 15.