South Bay Youth Gain Prestigious Davidson Institute Scholarships

CUPERTINO, CA — Cynthia Chen, 17, of Cupertino was awarded $50,000 as a 2019 Davidson Fellow Scholarship winner, along with three other South Bay residents as a means of spurring talent development among youth.

Natasha Maniar and Aryia Dattamajumdar — both 17-year-olds from Sunnyvale — were also awarded $50,000 and $10,000, respectively, as 2019 Davidson Fellow Scholarship winners. They were joined by Anna Quinlan, 18, of Atherton, who received $10,000 in the prestigious honor only handed out to 20 students across the nation.

"I am truly honored and humbled to be named a 2019 Davidson Fellow," said Chen, a rising senior at The Harker School in San Jose. “Receiving this award means a lot to me, and I am extremely grateful to the Davidson Institute for their support of my academic and scientific pursuits.”

Chen’s research project is complex even in the name — "Decoding Neural Networks: Novel Computational Methods to Discover Anti-Tumor B Cell Receptor Binding Motifs." It's considered an important first step toward a better understanding of deep learning models used in cancer research.

Chen was joined by Maniar in her gratitude.

“I’m extremely grateful and honored to be named a Davidson Fellow,” said Maniar who will be attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall. “I’ve always looked up to previous Davidson scholarship winner, and it’s immensely gratifying to be recognized for my work. I’m excited to join the Davidson Fellows community among many inspiring people.”

Maniar developed a computational approach to identify sources of atrial fibrillation. Despite affecting more than 33 million people worldwide, diagnostic imaging of electrical conduction through the heart remains relatively subjective and continues to rely heavily on visual interpretation by experts. Her code identified the AF sources inside the heart with greater accuracy than trained experts.

Dattamajumdar, a rising senior at Fremont High School, was inspired by those who deal with the dangers of fighting fires to develop her project — an early warning AI-powered portable system to reduce workload and inspect environmental damage after natural disasters. The multi-spectral sensing and inspection drone with automated target identification, decision-making and robotic retrieval can be deployed and operate in dangerous environments to make search and rescue operations safer and more accessible.

Quinlan’s project: "A Low Cost, Closed Loop Insulin Pump for the Better Management of Types 1 and 2 Diabetes Mellitus" is built with low-cost 3D-printed components, allowing for lower production costs and greater accessibility for the more than 415 million people who live with diabetes worldwide. Quinlan will be attending Stanford in the fall where she plans to continue developing software and devices to improve diabetes care.

"We are proud to announce the 2019 Davidson Fellows Scholarship recipients and applaud them for their hard work and achievement in their fields of study," said Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute. "By being awarded this recognition, these students have shown immense skill and work ethic, and they should be commended as they continue their educational and research journeys while continuing to work to solve some of the world’s most vexing problems."

The 2019 fellows will be honored at a reception in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program offers scholarships to students with the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music.

The Davidson Institute founded by Bob Davidson has provided more than $7.5 million in scholarships to more than 300 students since its inception in 2001, and has been named one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships by U.S. News & World Report. It is a program of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national nonprofit organization based in Reno that supports profoundly-gifted youth.

More information may be obtained by visiting www.DavidsonGifted.org/Fellows-Scholarship.