Before school let out for spring break, Loretto Academy High School hosted their science fair, with some students advancing to the next round.

Among those students was Samantha Perez, a junior who is president of the robotics team and vice president for Mexican Americans in Engineering and Science (MAES) Club.

Perez’s project focused on building a prototype machine that would determine if a pregnant woman has preeclampsia. 

Preeclampsia is a disease in pregnant women that causes high blood pressure and potential damage to major organs, such as the liver or kidneys — if severe enough, it can cause death to the mother or unborn child.

Perez said, “I used an LCD touch screen, a wrist blood pressure sensor, and an Arduino Uno [for coding].”

Perez’s prototype and hard work carried her all the way to the Texas Science and Engineering Fair (TXSEF), placing in the city along the way as well.

Before moving on to state, students must place among the top three in their categories at Sun Country Regional Science Fair, which was held on February 29.

Perez said, “I was nervous going into Sun Country, but since I’ve done science fairs before, I knew how it was going to be.”

Perez placed first at the regional science fair in her category, Translational Medical Science.

Unfortunately, before heading off to Texas A&M for the TXSEF, it was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Reacting to the postponement, Perez said, “I had mixed feelings because I am proud of this project, I put so much effort into it — so when all of this happened, I was sad.”

The TXSEF has only been postponed until further notice, offering Perez and hundreds of students across Texas hope in order to compete with the state’s top high school science students.