Two Pittsford Students Named Among Top Teen Scientists in the Nation

The Society for Science has named Pittsford students Emily Xinxin Yu (MHS) and Matthew Xie (SHS) among the top 300 scholars in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. They were selected from nearly 2,500 entrants from 795 high schools across 48 states, American Samoa, Guam, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 14 other countries. Regeneron Scholars, and their schools, are awarded $2,000 each.

Yu and Xie were chosen based on a number of factors, including their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions, and exceptional promise as STEM leaders that was demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations.

Emily Xinxin Yu’s research project is titled “Uncovering Unique Behavioral Patterns in Autistic Children Through Multimodal Machine Learning Analysis of Eye-Hand Coordination.”

Matthew Xie’s project focused on “Predicting the Risk of Asthma Development in Youth Using Machine Learning Models.”

On January 23, 2025, 40 of the 300 scholars will be named Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists. The finalists will then compete for more than $1.8 million in awards during a week-long competition in Washington, D.C., taking place March 6-12, 2025.

For over eight decades, the Science Talent Search (STS) has rewarded talented high school seniors who dedicate countless hours to original research projects and present their results in rigorous reports that resemble graduate school theses. Collectively, STS alumni have received millions of dollars in scholarships and gone on to found world-changing companies, publish groundbreaking research, and win Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals, MacArthur Fellowships and numerous other accolades.