Two teams with six NMMI students total attended the State Science Fair 2023 held at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) in Socorro. The followings are the teams’ project and their awards. Two years in a row NMMI was the Overall Champion for the State Science Fair. Both Teams will attend the REGENERON International Science and Engineering Fair in Dallas, TX, on May 13-19.

Team 1: Lucas Tang, Isaac Armenta, Evan Kennedy

Project title: Utilizing Crop Starches Incorporating Capsaicinoids and Glucosinolates Extracted From Locally Produced Plants To Synthesize Bio-degradable Insect Deterring And Weed Barrier Plastics As An Alternative To Commercially Produced Agricultural Plastics

1. Two special awards

1. David Shortess
2. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

1.  1^st place for their category- Plant and animal Science
2. 1^st place for the ISEF Qualifiers (overall champion)
3. Richard Overdort Grand Prize

Team 2: Ivan Belyaev, Steven XU, Sylvia Xu

Project title: Utilizing an Experimental Compost to Accelerate the Degradation Process of Low Crystallinity PET Plastics and Employing Molecular Docking to Analyze Targeted Binding Pockets

Awards:

1. 1^st place for their category- Environmental Science
2. 3^rd place for the ISEF Qualifiers