Riverside Unified Students Earn Top Honors at 2026 Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair

Twenty-five Riverside Unified students earned a total of 31 awards, including 20 gold medals, at the 2026 Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair on February 28, standing out among more than 530 students who presented 367 projects in 22 subject areas at the event. 

Martin Luther King High School students Erik Chen, Tingdan Deng, and Shivani Talati advanced to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to be held May 9-15, 2026, in Phoenix, Arizona for their project “Phytochrome B Output Module Sets Thermosensing Photobody Number and Tunes Arabidopsis Adaptation.”

Gold medal winners in the Junior and Senior Divisions at the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair advance to the 2026 California State Science and Engineering Fair, which is scheduled for April 11-12 at California Lutheran University. Gold medal winners in the Junior division also earn the chance to compete in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. 

RUSD produced nine gold medal winners in the Senior Division, nine in the Junior Division, and two in the Elementary Division: 

Senior Division (Grades 9-12):

• Ubaid Awan, Martin Luther King High School
• Alyna Burgett, Martin Luther King High School
• Erik Chen, Martin Luther King High School
• Tingdan Deng, Martin Luther King High School
• Ian Do, Martin Luther King High School
• Aiden Grover, Riverside STEM High School
• Patrick Moon, Martin Luther King High School
• Shivani Talati, Martin Luther King High School
• Ian Zhang, Martin Luther King High School
   

Junior Division (Grades 6-8):

• Leela Aji, Riverside STEM Academy
• Jack Grover, Riverside STEM Academy
• Henry Grover, Riverside STEM Academy
• Ty Holmes, Gage Middle School
• Santiago Joseph, Gage Middle School
• Emma Liu, Riverside STEM Academy
• Zachary Merrill, Gage Middle School
• Brianne Ourn, Lake Mathews Elementary School
• William Rolshausen, Gage Middle School
   

Elementary Division (Grades 4-5):

• Zoya Ray, Franklin Elementary School
• Maxwell Sanderson, Rivera Elementary School

Riverside Unified students also earned 11 community and affiliated awards, including:

Inland Empire Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG)

• Aiden Grover, Riverside STEM High School

2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge Nominees

• Leela Aji, Riverside STEM Academy
• Henry Grover, Riverside STEM Academy
• Jack Grover, Riverside STEM Academy
• Emma Liu, Riverside STEM Academy

2026 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Affiliated Regional Awards
(awards provided as part of affiliation with Regeneron ISEF)

Citadel Securities

• Joshua Curtis, Diego Diaz, and Glenn Zhang, Riverside STEM Academy
• Aiden Grover, Riverside STEM Academy

Lemelson Early Inventor Prize

• Benjamin Achiricoaie, Riverside STEM Academy

Society for In Vitro Biology

• Erik Chen, Tingdan Deng, and Shivani Talati, Martin Luther King High School

Society for Science

• Shivani Talati, Erik Chen, and Tingdan Deng, Martin Luther King High School

Water Environment Federation / Stockholm Junior Water Prize

• Caydence Chitwood, Riverside Poly High School