ORHS student wins first place at Tennessee Junior Science & Humanities Symposium

Oak Ridge High School student Daniel Joy won first place at the Tennessee Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Poster Presentation Competition held virtually in March, the school system said in a press release.

The competition was March 4-5. Daniel, son of Ingrid Busch and Ken Joy, presented his poster, “Using Data Science to Explore Historical Trends and Predict Future Rates of COVID-19”. His research involved analyzing COVID-19 case rates around holidays using regression analysis. Dan worked with Chad Steed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Math Thesis course at Oak Ridge High School, the press release said.

Jessica Williams, co-teacher of Math Thesis at ORHS, said: “We’re thrilled that (the University of Tennessee in Knoxville) was able to provide this opportunity to students this year. TJSHS is a unique opportunity for high school students to present their scientific research in a professional setting. We appreciate the support from our administration and the community to provide this course to our students.”

“That moment when the program finally works after the 17th bug fix is one of the best feelings,” Dan said in the press release. “It’s great when your research supports your hypothesis, but I think it’s more interesting when your hypothesis is wrong. Then you get to debate why.”

TJSHS is an annual scientific research competition that gives high school students the opportunity to present original research in a public forum, the press release said. There were 14 students that presented oral talks and three students who presented posters at the 56th annual TJSHS competition this year.

As the top winner, Dan is invited to the National Symposium and qualifies for National Symposium Poster Presenter cash awards in April.