Institute for Advanced Computing hosts symposium to showcase STEM learning for local middle school students

On August 22, the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing hosted more than 250 attendees at the NextInResearch symposium, where 60 middle school students presented their research projects in the Boeing Auditorium at Academic Building One in Alexandria. The event represented the long hours, hard work, and more importantly, the passion that these young engineers bring to STEM fields.

NextInResearch is a free summer mentorship program founded and run entirely by Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology students Deborah Torrico-Pardo and Dev Srivastava. Together, they matched 99 middle school students with a team of 29 high school mentors, who guided students’ individual projects throughout the summer. During their second summer as research assistants with Jim Egenrieder, director of the Virginia Tech Thinkabit Lab, they partnered with Virginia Tech to host the end-of-program symposium to showcase the middle school students’ work.

Most participants entered with no research experience, let alone an understanding of the scientific method. “By pairing middle schoolers with a high school mentor, we observed more personalization for students to own their project and gain a better understanding of their work,” said Srivastava. “Our motivation to start this program was to give middle schoolers the advice we wish we had when we were younger.” 

Beginning with the program’s introductory session in April, students worked individually or in groups to complete research projects ranging from habit-tracking apps to engineering a bionic arm using affordable resources.  

Participating middle school students came from 21 distinct schools across Fairfax, Loudoun, and Montgomery counties. They met every Thursday of the summer to learn from workshops hosted by Torrico-Pardo & Srivastava. 

“Seeing the kids having fun during these lessons and always bringing questions for the next week was one of our biggest motivators to keep going,” said Torrico-Pardo.  

Through these workshops, students collaborated and participated in group activities designed to teach complex scientific skills, including scientific writing and data analysis.

In addition to student projects, Virginia Tech hosted participants from various programs, including Invention Virginia, the Virginia Junior Academy of Science, and Bridge2Success Virginia.

During the summer, 11 student papers were reviewed by V. Andreea Sistrunk, scientific advisor for computer science and education in Virginia Tech's Technical Education and Workforce Development programs. Two of the middle school student projects were submitted to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference. Most students are planning to publish in other venues suitable for younger researchers and were encouraged to submit their work to various competitions. High school students received verified volunteer hours for their participation throughout the summer.

Torrico-Pardo and Srivastava plan to work with Egenrieder throughout the year to write a paper explaining how this summer mentorship model can be implemented in other communities. They also plan to expand the program to multiple cohorts and incorporate it into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 

“Support from Dr. Egenrieder and Virginia Tech faculty was what made the event the quality it was,” said Srivastava.