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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.

Research Symposium

Sat., April 15, 2023 | "STEM for All. All for STEM."
Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity in STEM

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.

Watch videos of 2023 keynote talks.

Symposium Schedule

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

This year's keynote speakers were Dr. Janice Chen, co-founder and CTO of Mammoth Bioscieces; Dr. Rohit Vashist, clinical data scientist in the Butte Lab of University of California, San Francisco's School of Medicine; and Simar Bajaj '20, award-winning journalist and Harvard University junior.

The Harker Research Symposium 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.

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 Our 2023 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

Sponsored by Harker's science departments and organized by the upper school's Women in STEM Club (WiSTEM), this annual community event 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.