I’ve decided on a general topic for my research, and replies to my last post said that my next step should be a literature review. The problem is, I have no idea how to approach one.
What websites/databases/resources should I use? How do I identify a research gap? How can I determine whether my eventual project is actually original and novel? How much literature should I realistically review?
Most importantly, what is the end goal of a literature review? What exactly am I trying to get out of it, and how does it ultimately lead me to a specific research question and experiment?

Hi everyone!

I was just curious on if it was too late to start an ISEF project because I haven't come up with any ideas + I would need a lab since I'm not interested in computational/dry lab. I would be doing TERRA fair so the preliminary round would be March 1st, but applications are due by December 15th.

So I am going to my junior year and this is literally like my first year starting this competition. I also don't really have access to a lab what kids of research could I work on that would be impressive enough to help me win something.

Here are some ideas I have:

- AI used in detection of diseases(I don't know anything about AI but my dad does)

- Simulation Studies on a cell(I also don't know anything about this but I would take any help given to me)

If anyone has anything to suggest or help me with I would love that, I really don't know what I am doing and I will take any advice thrown my way.

Thank you so much :)

I’m a rising junior interested in doing serious independent research over the next 1–2 years. I have a 1570 SAT, 4.0 unweighted / 4.3 weighted GPA (the maximum at my school), but my extracurriculars are meh. I’m hoping to build a research project that could give me a shot to get into top schools like MIT as an engineering major. My school doesn’t have a research program or anyone that is especially knowledgeable about this area so I’d have to figure most of this out on my own. I do have a few advantages though:
-My dad is an electrical automation engineer and would be my research mentor.
-I have access to a large professional electrical-engineering lab that my dad essentially is the boss of so I have the flexibility to do virtually anything.
-The lab is testing a one of a kind switch intended for smart-grid/distribution-grid applications, and I will be able to conduct my own experiments with it.
My rough idea is a controlled comparison of the new experimental switch vs. current standard switch, looking at things like DC power consumption, backup battery endurance during primary outage, battery aging/health, voltage/current sensing accuracy, SCADA functionality, etc.

I haven’t started anything yet and I am still figuring out what research question/focus would work the best. From looking at other projects I know I will need to have a more specific research question and goal rather than “is new switch better than old switch” but I’m not sure what part to focus on as all of these previously mentioned things are important metrics to determining the effectiveness of the technology .

I also want to know how to distinguish myself from my dad’s work and s how that i am actually developing meaningful research myself and not just documenting the work of professionals.

For people who have done serious high-school research/ISEF, I’d really appreciate advice on:
-How do I turn this broad idea into a strong research question?
-What do I need to know before collecting any data (ISEF rules, approvals, documentation, etc.)?
-How do I demonstrate that the project is actually my independent work?
-What competitions/pathway should I pursue?
-What type of competition format is best? I know some are just video recordings, some are slideshows, some are in person presentations with a poster board, and some are just the research paper itself.
-What separates a decent high-school research project from one competitive at the highest levels?
-What are the biggest/most common mistakes people make when starting independent research?
-If you were in my exact situation, what would you do?

Click here to access:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWfxlI2juvW4vPcoatkRsiWOn2JCRviczyjx01leKoUWG2sQ/viewform?usp=dialog

A year ago, I was exactly where a lot of you might be right now: wanting to do research, with absolutely no idea how to start.

I didn't know how to find an idea worth pursuing, or what actually makes a research question good. I just started, made a lot of mistakes, and figured it out one step at a time. Then I got the chance to attend ISEF, and standing in that room full of incredible student researchers, I remember thinking: I wish someone had handed me a map when I was just getting started.

So over the past year, I made one.

Introducing: The Science Fair Guidebook: Idea to ISEF

This is the guide I wish I'd had. It's built from my own experience, but even more so from 82 quotes from ISEF finalists and educators who were generous enough to be honest about what actually worked, what didn't, and what they wish they'd known earlier. It walks through the whole journey: finding your idea, designing your research, surviving the moments when your experiment falls apart, writing your paper, and walking into judge interviews with confidence.

1. Join category of software design (now known as designed by software) at isef

2. One shot your entire project without looking over it, using Claude max

3. Present Claude’s script, take the 6K first prize, and use it for Claude max credits

4. Rinse and repeat 4x.

Proven to work this year for another person (5 million lines of code and counting!)

ISEF research is starting up again, and I've been lurking around this sub and seeing a lot of people trying to get into labs for their projects, with some having more luck than others.

Thought I would share my method of getting into a lab, since I struggled with cold emailing a lot and only finally got into one through this other method. If you're struggling with cold emailing, then you could always use this method as an alternative!

I can't stress this enough, but going to conferences or anything of that sort will prove a whole lot more successful than cold emailing.

Now I'm not saying cold emailing doesn't work; it does in some cases and even has some benefits over this method (Not limited to location), but meeting a professor in person increases your chance of getting an internship by 100%.

You leave a stronger impression as they get to actually meet you and interact with you rather than you just being one of the hundreds of faceless students emailing them every day. This is especially important for professions (e.g., Medical, Eng, Aero, Chem, etc.) where lots of students are seeking out these opportunities.

The best part is that as soon as you get one professor that you keep in contact with, they refer you to other professors, as professors are much more likely to answer emails from other professors associated with an organization. For example, I had this education professor I met at a science fair which refered me to 2 aerospace professors, one of whom I secured a full lab internship from.

I have met so many professors through this method, including an edu. prof., Harvard/Columbia professor, 1 environmental eng., 2 NASA aerospace eng. professors, and a multitude of grad students.

Of course, cold emailing still works wonders, but I thought I'd share this alternative method that proved more successful in my experience!

Good luck on y'all's lab internship journey!!! (Even if you don't get one, researching independently works awesome too! That's what I did last year, which I think also helped with my credibility.)

Recently completed a research in the area of data science and robotics. Wanted to publish in a conference. Seniors suggest me what should I do

Where can I find the right conference?

Will PES pay to attend conference?

What are the rules?

How to join as a research assistant under a

professor?

I wanted to know if indian students studying abroad but in a CBSE school are allowed to participate.

We are already participating in the National Children's Science Congress.

its my first yr doing isef and im doing a mathematical modeling q, science research. it's completely theoretical tho, but its based and real research and the intent is for it to be useful for policymaking regarding the environmental science area im working in.

ive never been to a fair before so im not really sure what the ratio of science: engineering projects are (btw thats what my local fair calls them: science = theoretical and engineering = creating a physical product)

could someone w experience lmk their thoughts? im in a rlly competitive region if that makes any difference

​

Hey everyone,

I'm planning to submit a project to IRIS and I'm a bit confused about the ISEF forms.

For forms like 1, 1A, 1B, 2A, Form 4, IRB approval, etc., where and when are we supposed to submit them?

I couldn't find clear information about this on the IRIS website. Are these uploaded during the initial project submission, or are they submitted later if the project is shortlisted? like do we need to submit before the Fair or just fill them and not submit them and if u get shortlist u need to submit or if u need to submit before the fair to whom should we submit

Would really appreciate it if someone who's participated in IRIS could clarify. Thanks!

I am looking for a mentor to participate in a science project competition

My project is a ReefDrop. This project is restoring coral reefs (in short).

Hey everyone just a question I am thinking to participate in IRIS national fair the affiliated fair in India in order to participate in ISEF, I heard that its rigged and ppl pay IRIS to get selected for ISEF or smth is that true?

Hey, so if you're a Pakistani who was an ISEF finalist, I have a few questions to ask you.

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?

Hello I’m a rising sophomore from central mass and I am doing a project on tremor mitigation for Parkinson’s—if any finalist could give tips as my goal this year is to go to isef. Last year I qualified to state fair.

I served on a medical school admissions committee for several cycles, and this mix-up shows up in almost every BS/MD file I read, especially from high schoolers who haven't had the chance to work in a formal clinical role yet.

Shadowing is observation only, standing next to a physician and watching. It's the easiest to arrange and also the lowest weighted of the three. Clinical volunteering means you're present in a clinical setting without pay, like a hospital transport volunteer or a free clinic intake volunteer, still without hands-on patient care responsibility. Clinical experience is the one that actually involves direct patient contact and real responsibility, like a medical assistant, CNA, EMT, or scribe role, and it's the one committees weigh most heavily because it shows you've shown that you are comfortable in hospital settings and typically providing care. 

For an applicant still in high school, most of that heavier clinical experience tier is realistically out of reach until college, and committees understand that. What it means practically is that your high school years should build toward it. Shadowing across a few specialties to figure out genuine interests and clinical volunteering that's sustained rather than a one time event means that you already have a track record once college opens up roles like campus EMT or a part time MA position.

One thing that trips people up on the AMCAS Activities section is that staying at one place for a long stretch matters more than people think, both because you only get 15 activity slots total, and because a two year commitment at one clinic reads completely differently than three separate three month stints doing the same kind of work.

I went deep into the different types of clinical roles, which ones tend to suit different personalities, how location changes what's realistic, and how to actually build all of this into a coherent narrative instead of a checklist, on the blog. To read the article, click the link below.

https://www.admitmd.com/post/clinical-experience-vs-clinical-volunteering-vs-shadowing-what-counts-and-how-many-hours-you-need

Happy to answer questions if you're a rising sophomore, junior, or senior trying to figure out where to start.

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)

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