From uncovering hidden galaxy collisions to developing technology that supports seniors managing medication and designing AI-powered autonomous robots, Senior School students are set for this week's Canada-Wide Science Fair in Edmonton, Alta., hosted May 23–30. The national appearance comes after standout results at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair in April 2026.
St. Michaels University School is also proud to support the national event as a Motivator sponsor, reflecting the school’s commitment to STEAM education, inquiry-based learning and student innovation.
In April, students across the Middle and Senior School earned strong results at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair. Several Middle School students were overall winners, qualifying for the national-level competition. Among them was Grade 8 student Isaiah Pereira who won first place in the Junior Division (Grade 8-9) for his project Halo: Your A.I. Care Aide. Isaiah's success comes regionals after winning gold at nationals last year. Kara Chen also placed first overall but for the intermediate division (Grade 6-7) and her project was about creating a life-saving layer for emergencies. While seven Middle School students qualified, none of them were able to travel to the national event.
The Senior School participants, however, are set to show off their projects in person in Edmonton. Jared Qin (second overall), George Wang (third overall), and Alvin Tsao and Rubio Wu (fourth overall) are currently in Edmonton representing Victoria at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Using AI to Help Clean Local Beaches
After noticing increasing amounts of plastic waste and foam debris on local beaches around Victoria, Grade 10 student George Wang began developing an autonomous beach-cleaning vehicle powered by AI image recognition.
His self-driving prototype is designed to identify and collect garbage while navigating beach terrain independently. While George already had experience with computer science and machine learning, designing the physical structure of the vehicle pushed him into unfamiliar territory and helped him build confidence in engineering design.
“The hardest part for me was designing the body of the car because I had much less experience in engineering design than computer science,” he said. “But after working through it, I became much more confident in my skills.”
George hopes to continue refining the project by testing different wheel structures and expanding the vehicle’s ability to collect larger debris.
Searching for Hidden Galaxy Collisions
Years of competing in astronomy olympiads led Grade 11 student Jared Qin to a question researchers themselves are still trying to answer: how do scientists accurately identify galaxy mergers across the universe?
His project, Discovering Hidden Galaxy Mergers, explored a category of galaxy collisions that leave behind little to no visible evidence, making them difficult for existing detection tools to identify. Using machine learning, Jared analyzed more than 66,000 real galaxies and identified 301 collisions that previous methods had missed.
“The more I read, the more it became clear that nobody had specifically gone after the missing population and asked why it was missing,” he said.
Jared hopes to continue applying the research to data from the James Webb Space Telescope and eventually make the classifier open source so other researchers can build on the work.
Designing Technology to Support Seniors
Inspired by a visit to a neighbour’s home where medications covered an entire table, Grade 11 students Alvin Tsao and Rubio Wu began thinking about how technology could help seniors safely manage multiple prescriptions and reduce medication nonadherence.
Their project, Smart Pill Dispenser, combines hardware and software to create a medication management system that reminds users to take medication through LED lights, buzzers and mobile notifications. The pair also developed a companion mobile app connected through Bluetooth. Along the way, they encountered challenges ranging from Bluetooth reliability to designing an interface simple enough for seniors to use comfortably.
“We wanted to create something that solves a real-world problem and could genuinely help people,” said Alvin.
Their project earned several honours at the regional fair, including the UVic Science Chair Award and the BC Game Developers Innovation Award.
View Alvin and Rubio's Project
Building Autonomous Technology to Tackle Waste
For Grade 11 students Sting Zhang and Edmond Aphiwetsa, their project focused on a challenge visible across many communities: the growing cost and complexity of waste management. While the pair are not attending the Canada-Wide Science Fair this year, their project earned the BC Hydro Pioneers Award at the regional level.
Their project, Waste-E, is an autonomous garbage-collecting robot designed to navigate spaces independently, identify waste and return collected garbage to a designated location. Using cameras, mapping systems and self-driving technology, the robot can plan routes, avoid obstacles and carry out cleaning tasks with minimal human involvement. The project also builds on Sting’s previous science fair work involving a self-sorting garbage bin.
“We can reduce the cost by making an autonomous robot,” said Sting. “It plans the path first, follows the route, dodges people, picks up garbage and then comes back to the same position.”
The Canada-Wide Science Fair takes place May 23–30 and will showcase 390 of Canada's brightest young scientists and their innovative projects. The event takes place at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alta. Public viewing takes place 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on May 28-29. The fair can also be experienced virtually.
