Viraj Joshi
EAST MARLBOROUGH — Viraj Joshi of Patton Middle School has been selected as a semifinalist in the 2016 National Science Fair competition, Broadcom MASTERS®, a program of Society for Science & the Public (SSP) for his project titled, “Are 3D-Printed Orthoses More Effective than Traditional Orthoses? A Comparative Study on the Efficacy of Using 3D-Printed Orthoses.” This honor places Joshi among a select group of 300 semifinalists named from more than 6,000 nominees throughout the United States.
Joshi performed his research at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children’s Biomedical Research department under the mentorship of Dr. Tariq Rahman and Mr. Jin Wee. As part of the project, Joshi conducted clinical trials to study the effectiveness of 3D-printed braces (orthoses) compared to the commercially available traditional braces in search of treatment for neuromuscular diseases that make it difficult for people to move their arms and perform routine tasks.
Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering Rising Stars), is the premier science and engineering competition for middle school students. About 80,000 middle school students across the country participated in the SSP affiliated science fairs. In March 2016, Joshi was nominated, to participate in the national completion by virtue of his success at the Delaware Valley Science Fairs, a regional science fair for Delaware, South East Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.
