Come support the 12th annual Bioengineering High School Competition!

What is BioEHSC™?

The Bioengineering Honor Society is seeking funding for the 12th annual Bioengineering High School Competition. BioEHSC is a 7-week-long competition geared toward introducing high school students to the world of biotechnology. Despite being a rapidly growing field, bioengineering is not accessible to a lot of younger students due to its unique cross-discipline nature. By pairing high school teams with undergraduate mentors, the competition introduces high school students to this field and allows students to design their own project to address a current, real-world biotechnology problem. Students and mentors attend several workshops and meetings over the course of several weeks to develop their research and analytical skills. They then present their research to a panel of both industry and academia judges (including UC Berkeley professors, alumni, and graduate students) in a poster symposium. By participating in BioEHSC, students can:

1. Learn more about bioengineering, which BLS data show as one of the fastest-growing professions in the United States.
2. Interact with faculty and students at UC Berkeley, the #1 public university and one of the top engineering institutions in the world, with distinguished professors and alumni.
3. Become familiar with the engineering design process, which will help students gain critical thinking and analysis skills important for every profession.

At the end of the day, highest scoring teams in various categories are announced and receive biotechnology related prizes to further inspire their pursuit of bioengineering. In the past 11 years, the competition has grown drastically. In our inaugural competition, only a few from around the Bay participated. Last year, over 250 students from around the world took part. Even throughout the pandemic, the competition was hosted successfully and adapted to accommodate virtual participants. Our goal is to target low-resource districts through fee waivers, equipment donation on a need-basis, and visits to high schools to promote bioengineering as a field. The high school competition aims to make bioengineering, and science in general, more accessible to young minds. We promote undergraduate collaboration, mentorship, volunteering, alumni engagement, and faculty support to make this happen.

What are we asking for?

With the funds raised from the potential crowdfunding campaign, we would be able to pay for printing of research posters, the cost of materials to create more meaningful educational demo or workshop events during the competition, enough food to feed over 250 attendees (students, their teachers, faculty judges, and volunteers) on the day of the competition, and provide bioengineering-related educational classroom prizes for the winning teams. Furthermore, funds would go into subsidizing or waiving the registration fee for students that demonstrate financial need in future competitions. If our goal is not met, the funds would still go toward funding the materials needed to support high school teams bring to life their ideas for the future of biotechnology. This would allow many more students passionate about bioengineering to participate and allow us to consider expanding our program to regions outside the Bay Area.

This budget provides a rough estimate only, and actual expenditures may vary.

 

The funds from the 2025 Crowdfunding campaign will go toward general materials for competition teams, totaling to $2250. This is only a fraction of the total budget, outlined in the above graphic.

Your gift today would ensure that we would be able to continue educating future generations of bioengineers!

For more information, visit: http://bioehs.berkeley.edu/hsc/