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Research Symposium

The annual Harker Research Symposium showcases the discoveries of Harker's young scientists and alumni, honors the work of career scientists and entrepreneurs, and celebrates Silicon Valley's innovative spirit.

Virtual Research Symposium

Fri., April 9 & Sat., April 10, 2021 | "Robotics and Automation"

The research symposium, held each year in the spring on the upper school campus for the entire Harker community, includes displays of Harker students' often award-winning projects, talks by alumni involved in research, and corporate exhibitors. The 2021 symposium was fully virtual.

Watch videos of keynotes and panels here!!

Symposium Schedule & Abstracts

Teacher experimenting with fire

Symposium Program Includes

  • Dozens of talks by Synopsys and Regeneron participants
  • Talks and panel discussions by Harker alumni
  • More than 50 poster sessions by middle and upper school students
  • Pre-registered workshops
  • STEM Buddies science activities for young scientists
  • Student panels discussing technical writing, research internships and research competitions
  • Interactive displays by corporate exhibitors

Welcome sign

How You Can Participate

The Harker Research Symposium is for the entire TK-grade 12 Harker community, but we welcome outside organizations as exhibitors - come showcase your products!

keynote speaker on stage

Keynote Speakers

Sponsored by Harker's upper school science department and organized by Harker's WiSTEM Club (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ), the event has drawn top names in technology, including Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy; Salman Khan of Khan Academy; Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baltimore; Dr. Fei-Fei Li, chief scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud, and Jeff Dean, Google's senior fellow on the Google Brain Team.

This year's keynote speakers are Dr. Wayne Liu, senior VP of Perfect Corp, which revolutionizes beauty and personal care through AI and AR technologies; Chelsea Finn, research scientist and assistant professor, computer science & electrical engineering, Stanford University; Dr. Benjamin Chung, director of robotic surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine; Ryan Calo, professor, University of Washington School of Law and co-founder of the university's Tech Policy Lab; and Yi Sun '06, associate professor of statistics at the University of Chicago.

exhibitor booth

Corporate Exhibitors

Previous exhibitors have included Autodesk, HP, Microsoft, eBay, IBM, Ericcson, Google/YouTube, Marvell Semiconductor, Nvidia, Tesla and Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center.

Thank You to These 2021 Corporate Exhibitors

Student presenting her project

Student Abstracts

The research symposium celebrates the curiosity, scientific thinking and communications skills of Harker students in grades 8-12. Poster sessions and formal talks demonstrate high caliber student research and world-class science and academic programs at Harker.

Student using interactive screen

About the Research Symposium

The annual Harker Research Symposium showcases the discoveries of Harker's young scientists and alumni, honors the work of career scientists and entrepreneurs, and celebrates Silicon Valley's innovative spirit.

Upper school science department chair Anita Chetty, advisor for WiSTEM (Women in STEM), capitalizes on Harker's proximity to world class technology development to boost the symposium beyond a showcase for student projects into the realm of opening visitors' minds to new ideas as they emerge.

The Harker Research Symposium typically draws crowds of more than 900 people. "This is one of Harker’s hallmark events where our community comes together for one day to celebrate curiosity and discovery," Chetty said. Watch this space for updates!