2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair Wraps Up in Edmonton with BC Students Winning Big

June 1, 2026
2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair Wraps Up in Edmonton with BC Students Winning Big

The 2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair showcases the achievements of the nation's brightest young minds in innovation.

Vancouver, BC (June 1, 2026) - The Science Fair Foundation BC is excited to outline the winners from BC and the Yukon for the 2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF), which just concluded in Edmonton, Alberta this past weekend. The Canada-Wide Science Fair showcased the achievements of finalists from across the country. With a keen eye for curiosity and creativity, this talented group gathered for a national week-long event to earn their spot as the top minds in Canada.

Students from regional science fairs from across Canada were selected as Finalists, advancing to the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF). Amongst this group, students from every region in BC and the Yukon took home awards for their projects across categories.

The BC and Yukon award and scholarship winners are listed below. You can also read the full list here.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Visionary Award
Junior
Sponsor: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
$500 cash and certificate

  • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
    • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists Award
    Senior
    Sponsor: Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists
    $1,000 cash and certificate

    • Sreya Kurup – South Fraser – BC
      • Targeted Stress Modulation in S. aureus to Combat Resistant Infections via Bioactive Hybrid Therapy

    CAP Physics Award
    Senior
    Sponsor: CAP Physics Award
    $1,000 cash and certificate

    • Nadifa Omar – Okanagan Shuswap – BC
      • Can Sulfur Be a Signature of Life on Exoplanets?

    COSIA Award for Water Quality Analysis in Technology
    Senior
    Sponsor: COSIA
    $1,000 cash and certificate

    • Sebastian Audet – Pacific Northwest – BC
      • A Cleaner Tomorrow with Biochar Today

    Harvey World Travel CWT Award
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Harvey World Travel CWT
    $750 cash and certificate

    • Kushal Polamarasetty – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • VARION: Plasma Modelling and Testing of an Atmospheric Ion Thruster for Orbital and Space Propulsion

    S.M. Blair Family Foundation
    Intermediate
    Sponsor:  S.M. Blair Family Foundation
    $750 cash and certificate

    • Sitka Land-Gillis – Yukon Stikine – YT
      • RAISE: Early Detection of RED-S Risk Using Machine Learning and Wearable Data

    Shad Canada Scholarship
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Shad Canada
    Certificate. A $1,000 scholarship to cover the cost of attending the Shad program in July 2027.

    • Claire Couture – East Kootenay – BC
      • Remem-Bear: A Comforting Companion for Dementia Support
    • Lilou Lefebvre – Yukon Stikine – YT
      • A Novel Algae Synergy for Carbon Capture and Water Purification

    Challenge Award – Aerospace
    Senior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $1,000 cash and certificate

    • Nadifa Omar – Okanagan Shuswap – BC
      • Can Sulfur Be a Signature of Life on Exoplanets?

    Challenge Award – Energy
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $500 cash and certificate

    • Maida Ahmed – Northern British Columbia – BC
      • Unleashing the Power of Wind — Innovating energy generation in a wind tunnel

    Challenge Award – Natural Resources
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $500 cash and certificate

    • Khian Mau – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Can the Miura-Ori Fold be Used for Better and Stronger Pipes?

    Challenge Award – Natural Resources
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $750 cash and certificate

    • Nara Harvey – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • An Autonomous Sail-Powered System for Non-Invasive Multimodal Marine Monitoring

    Challenge Award – Health and Wellness
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $500 cash and certificate

    • Akshath Anand – South Fraser – BC 
      • Veino — IV Safety Monitoring System

    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $750 cash and certificate

    • Averil Lu, Wailea Lu – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Iron Repair, With Micro-Care: A Novel Dissolvable Bio-inspired Microneedle Patch for Iron Delivery

    Challenge Award – Diseases and Infections
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    $500 cash and certificate

    • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Youth Can Innovate Award
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Can Innovate
    $500 cash, presentation award and certificate

    • Akshath Anand – South Fraser – BC
      • Veino — IV Safety Monitoring System
    • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Youth Can Innovate Award
    Senior
    Sponsor: Youth Can Innovate
    $1,000 cash, presentation award and certificate

    • Sreya Kurup – South Fraser – BC
      • Targeted Stress Modulation in S. aureus to Combat Resistant Infections via Bioactive Hybrid Therapy

    Taiwan International Science Fair
    Open
    Sponsor: Taiwan International Science Fair

    • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Platinum Award – Innovation
    Junior

    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Crystal award

    • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Excellence Award – Bronze
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Maida Ahmed – Northern British Columbia – BC
      • Unleashing the Power of Wind — Innovating energy generation in a wind tunnel
    • Rahoz Abubakr Mohammed, Sreenand Shajil Kumar – Cariboo Mainline – BC
      • Early Warning of Water Quality Risk Using Real Time Sensor Data
    • Kim Tran – Fraser Valley – BC
      • Possible Hidden Physicochemical Properties and PTMs’ role in Cross-Species Transmission

    Excellence Award – Bronze
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Brenden Crowley, Tahirah Soles – Central Interior BC – BC
      • Turn up the air, turn down the heat: designing sustainable birdhouses to reduce heat stress in birds
    • Arsiema Fentabil – Northern British Columbia – BC
      • Bat-ter Stay Away: An Innovative Approach for Deterring Bats Near a Simulated Wind Turbine
    • William Li – Okanagan Shuswap – BC
      • A Novel Method Utilizing Latent Heat to Effectively, Efficiently and Accurately Cool Microchips
    • Christopher Lin – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Emergent Collective Intelligence in Swarm Robotics via Stigmergic Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
    • Jared Qin – Vancouver Island – BC
      • Discovering Hidden Galaxy Mergers: Finding Mergers Missed by Detection Methods

    Excellence Award – Bronze
    Senior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Lydia Choi, Veronica Nguyen – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • CryoPhase: Electrical Interfacial Control for Sustained Ionic Transport in Subzero Energy Systems
    • Elsa Gibson, Jason Zhang – Vancouver Island – BC
      • Gut Microbiome Changes in Alzheimer's Disease: A Multi-Model Machine Learning Analysis
    • Brian Guo, JayJay Zhou – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • An Underwater Image Enhancement Robotic System for Salmon Eggs Monitoring
    • ZiLing Zhang – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Energy-Efficient Design of an Ostrich-Inspired Bipedal Running Robot for Inspection Tasks

    Excellence Award – Silver
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Joel deFouw – Cariboo Mainline – BC
      • EvoNash: Accelerating Convergence to Nash Equilibrium
    • Shrimate Ghosh – Northern British Columbia – BC
      • Forecasting Blazing Wildfires with XGBoost ML Algorithm
    • Khian Mau – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Can the Miura-Ori Fold be Used for Better and Stronger Pipes?
    • Arjunvir Tuteja – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Derma-Heal: A Natural, pH-Indicating Antimicrobial Treatment for Accessible Wound Care
    • Sophia Van Moll – West Kootenay & Boundary – BC
      • Future Plastics — creating biodegradable alternatives to plastic

    Excellence Award – Silver
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Ethan Dallin – Vancouver Island – BC
      • Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots as a Fluorescent Sensor for Hydrolysed Gluten
    • Justin Guo – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • SmartFilter: A General Application, Non-Fouling, Universal Pollutant Filter
    • Edwin Jiao – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Magnetorheological Fluid–Driven Rolling Soft Robot for Tissue-Sparing Minimally Invasive Therapy
    • Kushal Polamarasetty – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • VARION: Plasma Modelling and Testing of an Atmospheric Ion Thruster for Orbital and Space Propulsion
    • Sitka Land-Gillis – Yukon Stikine – YT
      • RAISE: Early Detection of RED-S Risk Using Machine Learning and Wearable Data

    Excellence Award – Silver
    Senior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Jora Singh Nahal – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • In Silico Diabetes Management and Prediction: A Personalized Hybrid Physics-ML System
    • Nadifa Omar – Okanagan Shuswap – BC
      • Can Sulfur Be a Signature of Life on Exoplanets?

    Excellence Award – Gold
    Junior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Akshath Anand – South Fraser – BC
      • Veino — IV Safety Monitoring System
    • Willem Vuurmans – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • EXODEC: A Rational Design Framework for BBB Ligand Evaluation and De Novo Peptide Engineering

    Excellence Award – Gold
    Intermediate
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Nara Harvey – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • An Autonomous Sail-Powered System for Non-Invasive Multimodal Marine Monitoring
    • Averil Lu, Wailea Lu – Greater Vancouver – BC
      • Iron Repair, With Micro-Care: A Novel Dissolvable Bio-inspired Microneedle Patch for Iron Delivery

    Excellence Award – Gold
    Senior
    Sponsor: Youth Science Canada
    Medal and certificate

    • Sreya Kurup – South Fraser – BC
      • Targeted Stress Modulation in S. aureus to Combat Resistant Infections via Bioactive Hybrid Therapy
    • Nadifa Omar – Okanagan Shuswap – BC
      • Can Sulfur Be a Signature of Life on Exoplanets?

    About Science Fair Foundation BC
    The Science Fair Foundation of BC (SFFBC) is a not-for-profit organization that supports science and technology education through the science fair program. We are a volunteer science outreach network that works with educators, industry leaders, and community organizations to support over 1,500 volunteers and 20,000 students in local, regional, national, and international science fairs. Through flagship programs like the Youth Innovation Showcase, we foster innovation and creativity by engaging youth in science fairs and providing educational resources and knowledge-sharing. Join us in empowering the next generation of innovators. Learn more at sciencefairs.ca.

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    Talk Shop Media
    emily.larman@talkshopmedia.com

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