! LATEST NEWS !!    2026 ISEF TEAM REPRESENT AUSTRALIA WITH DISTINCTION    !! LATEST NEWS !! 

Our 2026 ISEF team have returned with distinction from Phoenix, Arizona. For our fourth consecutive year, our team won more than the national average of Grand Awards with 3 Grand Awards, and we also picked up 2 Special Awards. In total, our team returned with USD $4,600 in prizemoney. However, it wasn’t the awards that set us apart. Every student on our team attracted attention from the media, members of the public and judges with their wonderful posters and their ability to communicate – they were great ambassadors for Australia and their lives will never be the same.  

Our 2026 ISEF team members in alphabetical order were:

Anay Ashwin – Haileybury College, VIC

Archie Baker – Sydney Grammar School, NSW

Daniel Cox – The Scots College, NSW. Fourth Award of $600 in Environmental Engineering

Nathanael Guo – Sydney Grammar School, NSW

Sarah Huang – Shanghai American School, Aust. Int. Student

Jayashruthi Palanisamy – Chevalier College, NSW. Fourth Award of $600 in Technology Enhances the Arts

Shawn Rajaratnam – Redeemer Baptist School, NSW

Michael Reeves – Ivanhoe Grammar School, VIC. Second Award of $2,400 in Embedded Systems, First Award of $1,000 for Society for Science Alumni Group Special Award, Highly Commended for Incose Special Award

Georgia Smead – St Columba Anglican School, NSW

Lucy Zaknic – Loreto Kirribilli, NSW 

We want to thank our 2026 Sponsors for making this trip to Phoenix possible. We are now open for anyone who can support our 2027 ISEF team by making a tax-deductible contribution to our DONATION PAGE.

AUSSEF 2026 

AUSSEF is a STEM competition for Australian school students from Years 9-12 who have completed a substantial project in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics. Entries for AUSSEF 2026 will open in June, so students should be looking for project ideas for AUSSEF 2026. Check out the Rules and Guidelines Page and you might be in line to represent Australia or another Oceania country on the world stage! New Zealand now has their own National Fair so AUSSEF is no longer a pathway to ISEF for New Zealand students.

A three-staged national judging process will select the students who submit the best nine STEM projects into our AUSSEF competition. These students will win an all-expenses-paid-trip to compete at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), to be held in Los Angeles in May, 2027 (pending funding).

AUSSEF is committed to providing opportunities for students studying within Regional and Remote areas and for First Nations students. Hence, we strongly encourage Regional, Remote and First Nations students to enter.