UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio — For the past three years, Upper Arlington senior Mihai Crisan has been working on trying to resolve the limitations associated with current microelectronic processors, those used in computing and cell phones. 

“What I propose is a method of tuning beams of light just as you would with electrical signals with a transistor to process information, and by creating a lattice of these tunable components that tune beams of light, you're able to process information with beams of light just as you would with electrons," said Crisan. 

Mason High School freshman Laasya Acharya is another student taking part in the International Science Fair. 

She developed a device to detect food crop and vegetable diseases. 

Her device Ceres uses an image, Raspberry PI computing, and is able to give a diagnosis based on machine learning and A.I. processing. 

“I went to an orange orchard and saw a lot of fruit loss and that kind of started to peak my curiosity. And so I talked to a farmer there and she was able to inform me that this was a yearly issue for them and they had no detection system or no way to solve the issue. So that kind of interested me as a scientist,” says Acharya. 

Crisan and Acharya are two of 76 students who competed in the Buckeye Science and Engineering Fair.

They're also two of six students who were selected to join 1,700 others from 70 countries to compete for $4 million in scholarships and awards at the International Science Fair in Georgia. 

The Ohio Academy of Science Executive Director Michael Woytek said the science fair is a great networking opportunity for Ohio and its students. 

“(It) gives them an opportunity to be connected to practitioners from industry. You know physicians, physician researchers, engineers. It is also an opportunity for those professionals and our professional practitioners to engage and learn from these students,” said Woytek. 

Both Acharya and Crisan said they're excited for the International competition and confident that their research and hard work will continue to pay off.  

“I'm just really excited to be able to present my research at an international science fair,” said Acharya. 

“I placed second nationally at another competition, so I think that carries some weight. And to what I can do at the international in Atlanta Georgia this year, and so I hope for something good,” says Crisan. 

The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair takes place in Atlanta Georgia between May 7-13.