Sia Gullapalli ’27 has been working since last summer in a chemistry lab at UNC Charlotte, doing collegiate-level research that integrates TTZ-based chemical sensing with artificial intelligence to analyze UV-induced color changes and identify different amines. If you prefer, she’s happy to put that in layman’s terms: “It’s a method of rapid drug detection.” Her work is potentially useful in both law-enforcement and healthcare contexts. She explains, “I just wanted to contribute anywhere I can as a high-school student.”

Gullapalli said the project was challenging not just because it incorporated many different elements, but because of the nature of color itself: depending on the environmental lighting, the color can shift and produce different results. Nevertheless, she successfully integrated multiple disciplines — including optics, chemistry, and coding — and won third place in the senior division of the North Carolina Science & Engineering Fair, held on March 21 on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

Gullapalli plans to keep working on the project: the next stop is to develop a version of her program that can work on a phone. “I definitely want to go into science when I’m older,” she declares. Chemistry has long sparked her curiosity, she says: “I’m still deciding if I want to go into academic research or the premed track, but I definitely think chemistry is going to be a big part of it.”

Congratulations, Sia! Your school is proud of you!