STUDENTS’ RESEARCH RECOGNIZED AMONG BEST AT NATIONAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE

Greenhills seniors Shira Hanauer and Skyla Shea received the Distinguished Poster Award at the 2024 American Medical Informatics Association (AMAI) Annual Symposium, held November 9–13 in San Francisco. More than 2,400 attendees registered for the event, and poster abstracts were submitted by 507 college professors, graduate students, and a select few high school students. Only 328 posters would be accepted and just 10 received the Distinguished Poster Award.

The students’ poster abstract, titled “mHealth App Based Positive Psychology Intervention in College Students May Enhance Human Flourishing,” was developed after Hanauer and Shea synthesized the data gathered during a 2020 study. The study investigated the impact of a mobile health app on the mental health of nearly 2,000 college students, with Hanauer and Shea finding preliminary results that indicated app interventions could significantly support college students’ mental well-being.

“It was such a surreal moment when people started crowding around our poster and asking us questions,” said Shea. “Our heads were turning everywhere when we walked into the conference, trying to absorb everything that was around us. I definitely had a lot of fun, and I felt really prepared for the experience.”

According to the AMAI, “The Annual Symposium convenes informaticians from around the world to share research and insights for leveraging health information and cutting-edge technologies to improve human health.” Poster abstracts are evaluated for scientific content and significance of research, graphical presentation, and verbal presentation, with judges probing presenters to assess their depth of knowledge and overall presentation skills.

“This is a really big deal and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Greenhills science teacher Julie Smith, who also heads up the school’s Advanced Research Program. “The fact that their abstract was singled out by the committee—without knowing who they were, where they were from, or how old they were—is a testament to all the good things that happen at Greenhills, like our science program, writing program, and integrated public speaking program.”

Both Hanauer and Shea are participants in Greenhills’ Advanced Research Program, which involves spending a summer in a professional research lab, analyzing data, distilling their findings into poster abstracts, and presenting the results. Although their AMAI symposium poster was based on different research, the skills learned in Greenhills’ Advanced Research Program helped Hanauer and Shea prepare for and present their findings at the symposium.

“The Advanced Research program gave us a lot of confidence going into the Symposium,” said Hanauer. “We’d already done a lot of in-class poster presentations, and that helped prepare us to explain our findings and answer questions. It was a really good opportunity to be introduced to that scientific atmosphere at such a young age.”

Hanauer and Shea will join other Advanced Research Program participants in presenting their findings at Greenhills’ Advanced Research Night on Monday, December 9 at 6:30pm. The event is open to the community and will begin with poster presentations, followed by research talks from select students in the theater at 7:30pm.