Awards

We have won several national and international awards for our hardware, software, and citizen science projects.

2026

Third Place, Student Oral Competition. NASA Exploration Science Forum (NESF) 2026. Awarded by SSERVI at NASA Ames Research Center to Arushi Nath for Project MOON, tracking the Artemis II mission through open science. The only high-school student among the graduate and early-career researchers giving oral talks.

City of Toronto Open Data Award, 2nd Place (Public Projects). 2026. Awarded to Arushi Nath for Better My City: merging open data and AI to automate 311 reporting.

Public Spaces Champion. 2026. Awarded to Arushi Nath by City Councillor Ausma Malik (Ward 10, Toronto) for civic advocacy on safer, more accessible public spaces.

2025

NASA Group Achievement Award. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath as a member of the DART Period-Change Determination Team, for the first measurement of the change in an asteroid’s orbital motion caused by a kinetic impact, part of NASA’s Planetary Defense program.

Third Grand Award. Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), Columbus, Ohio. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project NEPTUNE: Unseen Exoplanet Prediction Using Transit-Timing Variations. Press Release.

Foresight Fellow, Planetary Defense. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath by the Foresight Institute.

Challenge Award (Aerospace). Canada-Wide Science Fair. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project NEPTUNE.

Gold Medal. Canada-Wide Science Fair. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project NEPTUNE.

Excellence in Astronomy Award. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project NEPTUNE.

Gold Medal. Toronto Science Fair. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath.

University of Toronto Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences Award (Physics). 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath.

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Award. 2025. Awarded to Arushi Nath.

Eureka Changemakers Fellow. 2025. Awarded to Artash Nath ($10,000 fellowship) for his ocean-technology work with YOU-Oceans.

2024

Masason Scholar. 2024. Awarded to Arushi Nath; a full undergraduate scholarship for planetary-defence research. Press Release.

Gold Medal. Toronto Science Fair. 2024. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project PhAst: Accelerated Asteroid Characterization.

University of Toronto, Earth Sciences, Mathew Shawn McConville Award. 2024. Awarded to Arushi Nath.

Ingenious+ Youth Innovation Challenge, Regional Winner. 2024. Awarded to Arushi Nath.

Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath ($10,000 award) for his ocean-monitoring work.

Youth Can Innovate Award (Senior). Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath ($7,000 cash, Gwyn Morgan & Patricia Trottier Foundation) for his project Deep Learning for Marine Mammal Conservation: Multi-Species Detection and Underwater Noise Assessment.

Excellence Award, Silver Medal (Senior). Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath.

Canadian Acoustical Association Award (Senior). Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath ($1,000 plus a subscription to the association’s journal).

The Actuarial Foundation of Canada Award (Senior). Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath ($1,000).

The Beaty Centre for Species Discovery Award. Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Awarded to Artash Nath ($500 plus a Canadian Museum of Nature family membership).

University Entrance Scholarships, Senior Silver Medallist. Canada-Wide Science Fair 2024. Offered to Artash Nath by Carleton, Dalhousie, Mount Allison, the University of New Brunswick, the University of Ottawa, and Western ($2,000–$4,000 each).

2023

Second Prize. European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Brussels. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project Developing algorithms to determine asteroid’s physical properties and success of deflection missions, Press Release.

Young Astronomers Award 2023. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Awarded to Artash Nath and Arushi Nath for thei numerous space exploration-related projects.

Best Project Award (Innovation) at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. Youth Science Canada and Gwyn Morgan & Patricia Trottier Foundation. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

Youth Can Innovate Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. Gwyn Morgan & Patricia Trottier Foundation. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

Challenge Award – Curiosity and Ingenuity at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. Youth Science Canada. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

Gold Medal at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. Youth Science Canada. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

Excellence in Astronomy Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

The Actuarial Foundation of Canada Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023. The Actuarial Foundation of Canada. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine Asteroid’s Physical Properties and Success of Deflection Missions

Team Toronto Travel Award to Canada-Wide Science Fair. University of Toronto – Office of the Vice-Principal Research and Innovation Award. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine the Physical Properties of Asteroids.

Gold Medal. 2023 Toronto Science Fair. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine the Physical Properties of Asteroids.

University of Toronto Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences Award (Physics) Award. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine the Physical Properties of Asteroids.

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Award. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Developing Algorithms to Determine the Physical Properties of Asteroids.

Ontario Volunteer Service Award. Government of Ontario. 2023. Awarded to Arushi Nath for years of science outreach and communication.

2022

Shortlist, Economist’s World Ocean Initiative’s Ocean Changemakers Challenge. 2022. Artash Nath for the Project: Anthropogenic Noise Level Analysis for Oceans.

Finalist, 2022 Nature Inspiration Awards (Youth Category). Canadian Museum of Nature’s Nature. Artash Nath for the project Monitor My Ocean.

Second Grand Award. International Science and Engineering Fair 2022. Earth and Environmental Sciences, Awarded to Artash Nath for the project: The Silence of Global Oceans: Acoustic Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown. (Press Release by Youth Science Canada).

Best of the 2022 Canada Wide Science Fair Award (Innovation). 2022 Canada Wide Science Fair. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python. (Press Release by Youth Science Canada).

Gold Medal. 2022 Canada Wide Science Fair. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python.

Award for Excellence in Astronomy. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada 2022. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python. Canada Wide Science Fair.

Solv[ED] Micro-grant Award. MIT. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Measuring Tree Density of Urban Parks.

Youth Can Innovate Award. The Gwyn Morgan and Patricia Trottier Foundation. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python.

EU Youth For Ocean Research Award 2022. Awarded to Artash Nath for MonitorMyOcean.com project for Research related to solve marine and societal challenges. EU Youth4Ocean Forum. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/maritimeforum/en/node/7179

Regional Winner 2022. Ingenious+ Youth Innovation Challenge. Awarded to Artash Nath. Fondation Rideau Hall Foundation. Canada.

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Award 2022. Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python. Toronto Science Fair.

First Place Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Award 2022. Awarded to Artash Nath for his project: The Silence of Global Oceans: Acoustic Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Gold Medal. 2022 Toronto Science Fair. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Strengthening Planetary Defense: Detecting Unknown Asteroids using Open Data, Math, and Python.

Zistwar Nou Losean 2022 Global Youth Collective Storyteller Award. Awarded to Artash Nath for the submission: Global Plastic Trade, Marine Shipping, and Acoustic Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Gold Medal. 2022 Toronto Science Fair. Awarded to Artash Nath for the project: The Silence of Global Oceans: Acoustic Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Matthew Shawn McConville Memorial Award 2022, University of Toronto, Department of Earth Sciences: Awarded to Artash Nath for his project: The Silence of Global Oceans: Acoustic Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown.

Youth Leadership Council Member, Earth Echo International. Artash Nath. USA.

Youth Ocean Conservation Summit Grant Recipient Artash Nath. To host a web app to provide updated anthropogenic noise level in global oceans.

Judges Choice Award. Awarded to Artash Nath. Second Ocean of Data Challenge. Organised by Ocean Frontier Institute, COVE and Deep Sense. Halifax, Canada. https://deepsense.ca/ocean-of-data-challenge/

2021

RISE 100 Global Award. Inaugural 2021 Cohort. Awarded to Artash Nath. An initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust.

Gold Medal, Canada-Wide Science Fair 2021: Awarded to Artash Nath for his project: The Silence of Canadian Cities: Seismic Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns. https://youthscience.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CWSF-2021-Award-Results-EN.pdf

The Actuarial Foundation of Canada Award 2021: Awarded to Artash Nath for most effective use of mathematics, database manipulation and statistical analysis or his project: The Silence of Canadian Cities: Seismic Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns. https://youthscience.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CWSF-2021-Award-Results-EN.pdf

Gold Medal, Toronto Science Fair 2021: Awarded to Artash Nath for his project: The Silence of Canadian Cities: Seismic Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns. https://www.torontosciencefair.ca/about-us/2021-gold-medal-recipients

Matthew Shawn McConville Memorial Award, the University of Toronto, Department of Earth Sciences: Awarded to Artash Nath for his project: The Silence of Canadian Cities: Seismic Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns. https://www.torontosciencefair.ca/about-us/2021-gold-medal-recipients

Finalist. National final of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Young Persons’ Lecture Competition 2021: Artash Nath. Certificate. Video of the Presentation. https://mcdonaldinstitute.ca/events/young-persons-lecture-competition-2/

Successful Completion of Qubit by Qubit 2020-21 “Introduction to Quantum Computing Course” by IBM Quantum. Artash Nath. The course took place from October 2020 to May 2021 and imparted foundational understanding of quantum computing with topics including linear algebra, coding with Qiskit, quantum mechanics, quantum algorithms, and quantum applications. (Certificate)

Youth Ocean Conservation Summit Grant Recipient Artash Nath. To build a low-cost robotic vehicle to take underwater photographs and measurements.

Certificate in Artificial Intelligence. University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Toronto, Canada. Artash Nath. Completed courses in Machine Learning, Deep Learning; and Intelligent Agents & Reinforcement Learning. (Certificate)

Best Hardware Award. ElleHacks 2021 Hackathon: Awarded to Arushi Nath for her project Drones for Green City Zones. https://tinyurl.com/2scphejg

2021 Youth STEM Matters Author Award. Inclusion Champion Award for Artash Nath for his article: “Will Artificial Intelligence Take Its Bias to Space” https://www.youthstem2030.org/news/author-awards-winners-2021

2020

Global Quantum Programming Bronze Diploma. QWorld. Awarded to Artash Nath. https://hotpoprobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/artash-nath-qbronze.jpg

Honorable Mention for TRAPPIST-1: Light and Sound Model. The Art of Planetary Science 2020. A Virtual Exhibition of Space and Planetary Themed Art, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. University of Arizona, USA. https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/art/2020

Judges Favourite Coolest Project Challenge: The Masked Scales, The Sonification of the Impact of Covid19 Lockdown Into a Lockdown Musical. Organised by Raspberry Pi Foundation. https://online.coolestprojects.org/projects/677

NASA SpaceApps 2020 COVID19 Challenge Global Winners: Artash and Arushi became global winners for their project “The Masked Scales” from 1422 projects from 150 countries. https://covid19.spaceappschallenge.org/awards

FIRST Place Award. 5th North American International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) Middle School STEM Competition. Awarded to Artash Nath for his project “ARTEMIS Robot: Building Artificially Intelligent Robots with Child-like Curiosity”. (See certificate)

Gold Medal, IRIC 2020 North America Science Fair. Awarded to Artash Nath for his project “Using Machine Learning to Remove Noise from Stellar Spots in Exoplanetary Data from Space Telescopes.”https://insposcience.com/project.html?id=O5

Forum for Young Canadians Award 2020. Awarded to Artash Nath at INSPO Research and Innovation Competition 2020.

Canada-Wide Online Science Fair 2020: Top Award of Three Ribbons given to Artash Nath by the Youth Science Canada (YSC) for project “Using Machine Learning to Remove Noise from Stellar Spots in Exoplanetary Data from Space Telescopes.” https://makeprojects.com/make/project/using-machine-learning-to-remove-noise-from-stellar-spots-in-exoplanetary-data-from-space-telescopes

24 Under 24 Leaders and Innovators in STEAM and Space Award 2020. Mars Generation. Awarded to Artash Nath. https://www.themarsgeneration.org/press-release-the-mars-generation-announces-24-under-24-leaders-and-innovators-in-steam-and-space-award-winners-for-2020/

BMT-Global Home STEM Challenge Global Winner 2020: Awarded to Arushi Nath for her Dragonfly DroNeS project by BMT as the winner of their Global Home STEM Challenge. https://www.bmt.org/news/2020/announcing-winner-stem-home-challenge/

Blast Off Design Challenge Winner 2020. Awarded to Artash Nath for the design and launch of an air-powered rocket in the 12-14 years category. USA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzi3an7Shfs&feature=youtu.be

North America Runners Up. Micro:Bit Do Your Bit Global Challenge 2020. Awarded to Arushi Nath by Micro:bit Educational Foundation. https://microbit.org/projects/do-your-bit/winners/2020/

2019

Imagining the Skies RASC 150 Winner 2019. Awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for our TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanetary Light and Sound model project. https://rasc.ca/imagining-skies-winners

NASA Space Apps Toronto Winner 2019 and Global Nominee. Awarded to Arushi Nath for the project: Schools and NASA Aiding Climate Action by Kids (S.N.A.C.K). https://hotpoprobot.com/2020/01/04/my-satellite-data-and-climate-change-project-wins-spaceapps-toronto-2019-and-is-a-global-nominee/

Canada’ Favourite Science Blog. People’s Choice Award. 2019 Finalist. Awarded by Science Writers and Communicators of Canada and Science Borealis. https://sciencewriters.ca/peopleschoice

Honorable Mention for Poster Presentation on Using Machine Learning to Predict Risk Index of Asteroid Collision. 2019 NASA Planetary Defense Conference. Washington DC. https://iaaweb.org/iaa/Scientific%20Activity/conferencereportpdc2019.pdf

Finalist, Canadian Space Agency, NSERC, 2019 Little Inventors Challenge, Canada. https://www.littleinventors.org/makers/arushi-nath/

Silver Medal, Swinging to Stability: How multiple pendulum system can isolate vibrations and help in detecting Gravitational Waves. Toronto Science Fair 2019. https://www.torontosciencefair.ca/about-us/2019-silver-medal-recipients-medals

2018

Jesse Ketchum Award 2018, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto. Presented to members who have done considerable work in the construction and/or application of equipment suitable for astronomical observation.

NASA Space Apps Toronto Winner 2018 Awarded the Global Nominee and People’s Choice Award for our project “Deep Space Musical”- the musical of our universe.

2018 Emerald Code Grand Prize Winners Awarded for our project “Trappist 1 Exoplanetary Model: Sound and Light Show”. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-UG42noXw

2018 Science Odyssey First Prize Winners Awarded for science outreach during Science Rendezvous at the University of Toronto.

2018 Cubes in Space: COTS Components for Cube-Sats Payload Selected for High Altitude Balloon by NASA Langley Centre.

2017

Canadian Space Agency SpaceApps Winner 2017 Awarded for transforming images from the Canadian Satellite RadarSat-2 into the #Canada 150 logo. https://hotpoprobot.com/2017/08/02/visit-to-the-canadian-space-agency-2/

NASA SpaceApps Challenge Toronto Winner 2017 Awarded for Drop the Drought application, which uses satellite imagery to predict climate change-induced droughts and migration that may happen as people and cattle move out in search of food and water.

2016

Climathon 2016 First Prize Winners and Climate Hero Award Won it for our “Fix the Six” project to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector by 5% by planting more trees and improving tree density alongside streets and community parks.