Bethpage High School sophomore Partap Sidhu has achieved a remarkable milestone—he has qualified for the prestigious 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international STEM research competition for high school students. This year’s ISEF, celebrating its 75th anniversary, will be held from May 12–16 in Columbus, Ohio.
Partap will attend ISEF alongside his Science Research and AP Research teacher, Ms. Nicole Dulaney, and Bethpage’s Director of Science, Mr. Chris Pollatos.
Partap’s groundbreaking project, A Humanoid Upper Body for Automating Hazardous Tasks, tackles the urgent need for safer alternatives in dangerous work environments. As industries in the United States increasingly turn to robotics for high-risk tasks, they face challenges such as high costs, limited adaptability, and inconsistent performance. Partap’s innovative solution addresses these barriers head-on.
Designed with affordability and performance in mind, his humanoid upper body integrates quasi-direct drive actuators and machine learning. The system leverages ROS2, a meta-operating system for robots, to enable real-time trajectory planning and accurate position detection using an Intel Realsense 3D camera. Motor control is managed via a CAN-bus interface. A custom-trained Yolov10 machine learning model detects objects with an impressive 97% average accuracy. In testing, the robot successfully performed tasks in both laboratory and recycling settings.
Perhaps most impressively, Partap completed his humanoid prototype for just $897—a staggering contrast to commercially available humanoids, which can range from $30,000 to $2.5 million.
This exceptional accomplishment not only demonstrates Partap’s technical prowess but also highlights his commitment to solving real-world problems through accessible innovation.
Congratulations to Partap on this outstanding achievement, and best of luck at ISEF 2025!