The purpose of the Student Challenge is to allow middle and high school students to think creatively, conduct background research, and develop a proposal for a unique solution that can help address important problems that face the medical field. Through this process, students will be able to think like scientists and learn how to make existing technologies even better.

Theme

The theme of this scientific student challenge, "Bioinformatics to Understand Mental Health Disorders," invites students to explore how computational biology can help researchers better understand the biological factors associated with mental health conditions. Participants are encouraged to design thoughtful and creative projects that use biological data to study genetics, brain function, molecular pathways, or population-level patterns related to mental health disorders. This could include projects such as analyzing genetic variations linked to psychiatric traits and related conditions, studying gene expression in the brain, modeling biological networks involved in mental health, or using data to better understand risk factors and disease mechanisms. By applying bioinformatics approaches, students can explore how data-driven science contributes to improving understanding, and may inform future research into diagnosis and treatment strategies for mental health disorders. Projects should aim for clear questions, transparent methods, and careful interpretation.

We want students to have room to explore their own interests and see how computational and engineering methods can be applied to the topic. Small, well-executed projects are encouraged (e.g., one dataset + one question + one clear takeaway).

We have several mentors available to assist you. If you want someone to review your project, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and provide your need and your topic specifics, and we will match you up with a mentor.

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Before the Symposium

Students should brainstorm and think of ideas within the scope of the topic Bioinformatics to Understand Mental Health Disorders.

All attendees interested in participating in the Student Challenge will add the title and abstract for their project during the registration process.

Attendees will have the opportunity to edit their registration to add their project information if they decide to participate after they have registered to attend by using the personalized link in your confirmaiton email. All projects need to be in the registration system by June 21st at 11:59 pm Anywhere on Earth. All participants in the Student Challenge will receive an additional email with information on where and how to submit their project. All projects must be uploaded by June 29th.

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During the Symposium

At the symposium, there will be scheduled time at the end of the programming to announce the winner. Project review will occur offline in advance of the day. The judges will score and determine the top project in advance and award a winner during the closing ceremonies.

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Project Details

Before the symposium, all participants in the Student Challenge MUST upload their project. Your submission should be between 3-5 minutes and consist of voice-over slides or a video. All Student Challenge submissions will be available for on-demand viewing 48 hours before the symposium.

• Save your presentation as an MP4 file with the first name, last name, and project title.
• Slides should be widescreen16x9 ratio, which exports best to 1080p videos.

Some helpful tips on planning your recorded talk are available at these links:

• Recorded Presentation Guidelines for Virtual Events
• How to record a PowerPoint Presentation

Presenting your poster in a lighting style format using the PechaKucha or Ignite talks presentation style or a single slide or PDF is an option for presenters.

Here is an example of a presentation: https://youtu.be/EwzUjzvlVWQ

All projects must be uploaded by Monday, June 29, 2026.

At the Student Challenge, individuals will be assigned a virtual table and be available to answer questions about their project.

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Judging Criteria

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