Pranav Sivakumar developed an automated method to find quasars from existing data. Taking data from Data Release 12 of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys Pranav refined two algorithms he had previously created. His work is intended to find data about distant quasars that cannot be seen because closer galaxies obstruct our view. When the light of the quasar is bent two or more images can be visible, leading Sivakumar to use these images (gravitational lenses) to identify quasars.
The hypothesis for the project is that his method will be effective in identifying lensed quasar candidates. Overall the project confirmed 56 lensed quasars from current data and literature, and also brought forward 109 new candidates.
Based on the results of Sivakumar’s experiments he believes that quasar identification can be improved and done more quickly. The report section of the Science Fair page says that more development and validation are required, with a focus on separating the candidates into regions. Pranav says that he plans to keep working on this research for many years to come. He hopes the information we learn about dark matter from these quasars can help scientists to discover more about the size, shape and future of the universe.
Pranav won the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award through Google’s Science Fair 2015. The win gives Sivakumar the opportunity to tour Virgin Galactic’s Mojave Air and Spaceport, meet with the company’s engineers, and a personal tour of Virgin’s new spaceship. One of the most inspirational parts of this project for me is that the work is based off of Pranav's 2014 project, where he was a semifinalist in the competition. The fifteen year old junior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy has already achieved enough that he merits his own Wikipedia page , where he’s described as “an American speller and amateur researcher.”