Students from the Halton District School Board achieved significant success at the 2026 Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair, taking home dozens of awards during the ceremony held on March 24, 2026.
Out of 160 projects submitted by students from the region, 85 received recognition. These achievements earned students more than $16,000 in cash prizes and scholarships to universities such as McMaster University and the University of Ottawa.
The Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair is a volunteer-run charity that has supported student research since 1960. The event provides a platform for students in grades 7 through 12 to showcase work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Abbey Park High School dominated the top honors, with students Jordan LeBlanc and Krishangi Oberoi winning the first and second place Pinnacle Awards, respectively. LeBlanc, a Grade 9 student, earned the top prize for his project using artificial intelligence to predict Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, while Grade 11 student Oberoi was recognized for her research on immunotherapy for T-cell malignancies.
In addition to these individual successes, Abbey Park High School was awarded the Herb Gildea Memorial Trophy for achieving the highest overall score among secondary schools at the fair.
The top winners, including LeBlanc, Oberoi, and home-school student Tristan Barkman, will now move on to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, taking place from May 9 to May 15, 2026. Another 10 projects from various schools, including local Burlington institutions like Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School and M.M. Robinson High School, have qualified for the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Reflecting on the students’ performances, Halton District School Board Director of Education Curtis Ennis noted that the projects highlight the innovative, future-ready thinking cultivated within local classrooms.
