Catherine Kung has received multiple awards for her artificial skin research. Photo courtesy of Rachel Wallace.
Indian Springs School senior Catherine Kung has received multiple awards for her ongoing research on the development of a bio-inspired artificial skin.
Kung rose among a competitive pool of university students to claim first place for the 2022 SPIE Best Student Paper Award. SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The award recognizes research with “a demonstrated connection to smart structures and materials.”
Kung worked with Indian Springs School physics teacher Hazal Mohammed on the paper titled “Development of bio-inspired flexible artificial skin and sensory information processing using a Kohonen artificial network.” As one of six finalists, she traveled to California this spring to present her research to a panel of esteemed judges. She received a cash prize of $500.
Kung also won first place in the 2022 Alabama Science Scholar Search and received a $4,000 Gorgas Scholarship.
At the 2022 Central Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair, Kung won first place in senior division engineering for her project, “Recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) trigger words using RF sensors in combination with deep neural networks.” This was a new project separate from her research on artificial skin.
Kung is one of three Indian Springs School students who competed at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair this past May. She and classmate Mayu Nakano set a school record for advancing to Regeneron for two consecutive years.
Kung scored a perfect 36 on the ACT and was named a Presidential Scholar Candidate and is a National Merit Finalist.
Submitted by Rachel Wallace
