Kiyan Paknezhad, a rising senior at MMI Preparatory School, completed a five-week STEM program at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (PGSS) is a yearly program focused on giving select students the ability to further STEM research by providing advanced courses in mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and biology, along with hands-on laboratory research. Only 71 high school juniors and seniors from across the state were chosen to take part in this year’s program. The program typically receives over 500 applications every year.  

Over the five-week period, along with completed courses in various STEM subjects, Kiyan’s team developed a research project and presented it to their peers, faculty, and family members. Kiyan’s group focused on electrical engineering with a project called Designing and Building a Metal Detector. At the symposium, along with providing a thorough explanation and understanding of the mathematics and physics required for the device, his group demonstrated the working metal detector they built with the materials provided by the Carnegie Mellon physics department. Upon the completion of his research paper, Kiyan received a certificate from the PGSS and his work will be published in the PGSS archives at: https://sciences.pa-gov-schools.org/program/pgss-journal-archives/.