Plano ISD has another reason to celebrate. Matthew Kuo was named a finalist in the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, one of the nation’s premier STEM competitions for middle schoolers.
Kuo, an eighth grader at Renner Middle School last year and now a ninth grader at Jasper High School, earned a spot in the Top 30 from nearly 1,900 applicants across 34 states and Puerto Rico. Earlier this month, Local Profilereported on the three Plano ISD students named to the Top 300 — Kuo, Terri Lv of Rice Middle School and Rajveer Savla, also of Rice. Kuo is the only one from the district to advance to the Top 30.
Fuel Cells And Fresh Ideas
Kuo’s project, Factors Affecting Fuel Cell Energy Efficiency, explored how water quality influences the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. He compared energy sources, tested over 50 conditions and found surprising results: higher pH levels improved efficiency, while impurities like salt decreased it. Sugar, on the other hand, boosted performance in certain cases.
“I wanted to explore something unfamiliar,” Kuo said of his decision to study fuel cells after experimenting with solar and wind power in earlier projects. His findings suggest new possibilities for improving renewable energy systems…