TNJSF 2026

As my high school journey comes to an end, I competed in the Terra North Jersey Science Fair one last time over this weekend. An ISEF-affiliated fair, the top 7 projects qualify to attend ISEF 2026 in Phoenix, AZ.

I’m very happy to say I will be a part of the 7 students able to compete at ISEF. A shout-out to Ken Lyons, the fair director, and all the judges, parents, volunteers, and students that made this fair possible.

I’ve been doing science fairs and competing at TNJSF for the past 3 years. They have honestly changed my life — I’ve made some incredibly close friendships with other students and met experienced researchers and professors in my specific field of interests. Many of the major research and academic opportunities I have secured comes from making connections during science fairs. As I wrap up my time doing high school science fairs, I wanted to write a blog post about my thoughts and advice for any students new and curious to science fairs.

Pitch like Shark Tank

The (perhaps brutal) truth is that judges will forget about most of your project. The judges did not spend several months researching your particular topic. They will likely forget most of the details about your methodology and the exact calculations you made for your metrics and results. You want to make your project memorable in the simplest terms possible.

The best way I do this is to pretend I am pitching a product or solution that I invented on Shark Tank.

• Articulate the research gap/limitations clearly and provide intuitive explanations for why these limitations exist
• Explain intuitively how your research solves these limitations. Again, you want to simplify and distill your explanation so a layperson can understand. There is no need to go into technicalities and jargon. This is what your judge will remember hours after listening to your speech.
• Signpost in your speech! Make use of “In summary…” “My research contributes to…”, “This paves the way for…” etc. This is especially important when presenting your discussion/conclusion as this is what is going to be remembered.

• As mentioned above, the discussion and conclusion are the two most important sections. You want to:
  • Interpret your results in layman’s terms
  • What new breakthroughs your research achieves. (“My project is the first to do <x>, <y>, and <z>”)
  • How your research can inspire and improve future research.

While this is a science research fair, the usual characteristics of a good researcher in academia do not apply. You must sell your project like a product. In fact, treat your proejct like a startup. As I once said to a friend, you must adopt the Silicon Valley Bay Area YC startup founder mindset. Having a scientifically sound project is just the first step. Most projects at science fairs have good science and are scientifically interesting. What sets the winning projects apart is good communication and the understanding of appeal to the judges.

don’t play the odds, play the man - harvey specter, suits