High School Students Earn Youth Presenter Award for Shinnecock Research
Two high school students worked with Stony Brook University researchers to help bring energy to the Shinnecock reservation.
The two students, Nathan Qiu and Vinav Shah, are high school students from Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, California, and The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, respectively. They came to Stony Brook University this past summer to work on a project with researchers, spanning from graduate students to professors.
The research project entailed using custom algorithms to optimize how energy is stored and used in the Shinnecock nation, a Native American tribe located on eastern Long Island. The Shinnecock Nation wanted a clean form of energy called green hydrogen.
“This project bridges research and real-world impact,” said Qiu. “It directly benefits real world communities by giving the Shinnecock Indian Nation a scalable, AI-driven tool for efficient energy management.”
“I think that the Stony Brook environment is incredibly positive for research and it’s enabled a project like this, which is really unique,” said Shah. “Stony Brook genuinely cares about community well-being and making sure that communities on Long Island are doing well and using research not just to push forward the knowledge of humanity, but to push forward humanity’s condition.”
Other members of the research team included Peng Zhang, a professor from the Department of Electrical Engineering and SUNY Empire Innovation professor; Eliana Matsil, a master’s student in chemical engineering; and Miriam Rafailovich, a distinguished professor from the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering.
“It is important to emphasize the significance of this research within a broader context, as our goals to develop a sustainable and deployable solar-to-hydrogen microgrid system have potential to influence communities and establishments across the globe,” said Matsil. “By demonstrating the feasibility of decentralized, resilient, and culturally aligned energy solutions, this work can serve as a blueprint for other Indigenous nations, remote communities, and developing regions seeking to achieve energy sovereignty and long-term stability.”
Shah and Qiu’s involvement in the project earned them the Best Youth Speaker Award at the Materials Research Society Conference, where they presented at Symposium MTO2: Machine Learning in Action.
“When they awarded us the youth speaker award, it was really surprising, and it felt really good knowing that we were one of the best youth speakers at the conference,” said Qiu. “I definitely plan to continue doing research in the future, through university and beyond.”
The project influenced Shah to pursue a combination of energy systems and computer science, particularly focusing on renewable energy, battery technologies and AI applications in energy grids.
“I think now after doing this project, I’ve seen how energy is really important in people’s lives and can impact people, ” said Shah. “And going forward, I want to study some combination of energy systems and computer science.”
Shah and Qiu expressed their immense gratitude for the program. They want to give a special thanks to the Garcia Summer Research Program for bringing the team together.
— Angelina Livigni