Arjun Aggarwal with his science fair project, GNut-III, an interactive robot.

I don’t know about you but what I remember going down at my High School’s Science Fair was ugly, messy, and well…dangerous. But, a Lexington High School student has a much different story to tell.

What started out as a science fair project for Lexington High’s Arjun Aggarwal has now earned him a Davidson Fellow award.

The Davidson Institute for Talent Development selected Aggarwal to receive the award that comes with a $25,000 scholarship based on his achievements in science, engineering and technology. Aggarwal’s road to being named a Davidson Fellow began when he built GNut-III, an interactive robot with vision, intelligence and speech capabilities.

He entered it in the USC Central South Carolina Region II Science and Engineering Fair. He won first place in the senior division for engineering, an Outstanding Achievement Award, the Naval Science Award for Distinguished Achievement and the Region II Presidential Award. He also won a $1,000 scholarship from USC.

His first-place award at the USC Science Fair advanced Aggarwal to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May. More than 1,600 finalists from around the world competed. Aggarwal received a fourth-place award in the electrical and mechanical engineering category. He also received an all-expense paid trip to the European Council for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland.

Additionally, Aggarwal represented South Carolina at the I-SWEEEP or International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering and Environment Project Science Fair in Houston. At I-SWEEEP, he won a silver medal in the engineering senior division, the United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement for an outstanding engineering project, and a certificate of recognition from Texas A&M University.

Wow, so science can be cool!