Ved Bhagat

Research Club at their club meeting

Research club is the newest club to bring new STEM-based extracurriculars to North, being launched by freshman Ved Bhagat and meeting on Thursdays in room 455.

“During my eighth grade summer, I attended a research program at Vanderbilt University that inspired me to be more curious about research,” said Bhagat. “I’ve always been passionate about science and saw online that there was a competition called the International Research Olympiad, so I thought it’d be good to introduce another STEM competition to North.”

The International Research Olympiad is an annual global competition that is “dedicated solely to scientific research, and aims to promote essential skills for science research among young minds” according to their website.

“[We] read research papers and try to answer questions related to data in those research papers,” said Bhagat. “This year it wasn’t possible to compete competitively because we only had a few meetings, but what we’re trying to do next year is basically that we’ll do practice activities that will help us prepare for the IRO.”

Though research club did not compete in the IRO this year, the club currently has focused on helping develop interest in STEM, and eventually competitive research, in North’s student body.

“I joined Research Club to be able to help with questions regarding STEM, specifically biology, and helping kids explore more about STEM,” said club vice president and senior Diya Desai. “My hope is for the club to be able to thrive in the future and have more people be interested and involved.”

As research club positions itself for growth in future, there is an enthusiasm among the participating students as the club prepares for competitions in coming years.

“My mentality is, if a kid’s interested, I’ll help them out,” said club adviser Peter Gleason. “These kids are hoping to take this off to college, and I think that’s fantastic.”

If you want more information, you can email Ved Bhagat at [email protected].