r/ISEFinalists

for iris

So my sophomore year is starting next week, and I have imo a pretty good idea, but I would need lab access to execute it. However, I have struggled to find any labs that can help me, and I really doubt that a professor would take time out of their day to run my experiment. Do you guys have any advice?

I just become a sophomore and I’m planning to do science fair this year. I am someone who is planning to have a career in astrophysics and I want to do a science project centered on that! My goal is also to get into ISEF.

However, I do not have any ideas but I am open to any topic in astrophysics and prefer an analytical project rather than an experimental one.

Any ideas?

Hi, I am a rising sophomore in North ATL working on a Robotics/Systems and Software project. I’ve seen a lot of projects that have very clear, significant real-world impact that performed well at ISEF, but how do more academic framed projects do? My research is in scaling Reinforcement Learning agents and much of the research in this field is purely academic. My project takes the same direction, so I wanted to know if projects MUST have real world impact to get to and perform well at ISEF. My project does have real-world impact, but it is not as obv as other projects because Reinforcement Learning is used with robotics so my research could help us make larger models to improve robot learning and make them bigger. Do you recommend that I actually collab with a robotics lab to build something physical with this to show the impact, or is it fine to keep it purely theory and just speak about the application?

Hey guys!

Last year, I competed in my first science fair. However, I realised that finding out whether my idea had already been done was weirdly hard. ISEF's official abstract database has the projects, but it's keyword search, so if you don't guess the exact words the abstract used, you get nothing.

So I built Fairfolio: every ISEF project from 2014–2026 plus CWSF 2026, 17,911 projects, searchable by meaning (semantic embeddings) instead of keywords.

example: search "teaching a machine to walk without falling over" on keyword search and you get zero results. Semantic search returns the quadruped and hexapod locomotion projects, because it matches the idea rather than the wording.

Current features:

- Filter by fair, year, category, award

- "Related projects" on every page, by embedding similarity

- Save projects to folders

- Every record links back to its original source

It's free, no account needed to browse. Data is from public ISEF abstracts and CWSF's public project listings.

I'm also currently working on adding database APIs and public MCP access so yall can connect your AI agents for ideation purposes.

Currently still in its early stages which is why I'd appreciate it if some of you guys tested it out. Thanks! (fairfolio.org)

Hi so recently I'm starting to write my research plan, then I came across the AI use table so I am writing the entire thing again, then I learnt that I need to write a LOGBOOK, and there are multiple forms I need to fill in, since my research topic is about Human Behavior including students. I'm honestly overwhelmed. This is my first time doing anything like this and I don't really have a mentor who knows the ISEF process.

I have a few specific questions:

1. What exactly goes into a logbook? Do I need to write down everything I do every day?
2. What forms do I actually need for a human subjects project? Any forms?
3. How do I handle AI use properly? I used AI to help with code and some drafting, but I'm rewriting everything now.
4. How strict is the IRB process for a school-based pilot study?
5. I have much more questions but I don't want to waste too much of ppl's time

and I am hoping to seek help or guidance from people who are much more experienced than me. Thanks in advance! :)

hey so i just got introduced into isef and im planning to go in the software design area

could you guys look at my question - How does machine learning-driven dynamic constraint prioritization impact solver runtime and optimality gaps in Mixed-Integer Linear Programming and see if its original and good, and the simple version is basically can ai priortize which rules are most important in a difficult problem with lots of different rules and will it give the same result while priortizing efficiency

i am participating this year in the category Physics and Astronomy.

can anyone give some tips presentation and video etc. And how they basically judge on a online project.

Hey everyone, I've been an ISEF finalist for two years ('24 and '25), and I coached 4 students to ISEF last year. I'm looking to do more pro bono work outside of regular paid coaching.

If you are genuinely super motivated and have a solid direction, please DM me and let's talk!