Culver Military Academy 1st classman named Regeneron science scholar

A Culver Military Academy first classman has been selected by the Society for Science as a top 300 scholar in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2025.

Tony (Zitong) Zhou was awarded $2,000 for being selected and earned another $2,000 for Culver Academies. He was chosen for his robotic grasping device project that can sense the size, shape and orientation of an object. His project is called Self-Shape Sensing Soft Pneumatic Grasper Based on Piecewise Liquid Metal Sensor and Piecewise Variational Curvature Model.

Zhou won the award for writing a research paper about a self-sensing pneumatic three-finger grasper that he built last year, earning a fully paid trip to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. He also had to answer some essay questions to show his understanding of science.

David Lawrence, a senior instructor in computer science and engineering at Culver and the adviser to students entering the ISEF competition, said it was the first time in recent memory that a Culver student had been named a top 300 scholar. Stephen Arnold ’46 was named a top 40 scholar in 1946 for his study on cosmic radiation using Geiger tubes he made himself, earning himself a fully paid trip to Washington, D.C., for a five-day science talent institute.

Lawrence said what makes Zhou’s project interesting is it uses soft robotics in a novel way.

“He has a special sensing material inside, using a magnetic liquid metal solution, that make it unique,” Lawrence said.

Zhou said the research paper was a slight upgrade on the grasper he brought to the ISEF competition last spring. He said he used the radius of an object to approximate the volume or an area of the object. He also upgraded the sensors on the grasping fingers.

Zhou said it can be used in intelligent manufacturing to separate items by size and shape. He said it also makes it safer for people to interact with robots, saying he read about a chess-playing robot injuring a child’s hand.

“This will make it safer for people to interact with robots because the material is soft,” he said. “When I’m working on this soft grasper I’m trying to imitate a human hand or animals. What I’m doing is more of a bionic design rather than designing a robot.”

Lawrence said he was surprised Zhou’s grasper didn’t place in the ISEF competition last spring. He said the judges don’t always have expertise in  the subject they are judging.

Zhou said that’s why he wrote the research paper, even though he didn’t place in Los Angeles, saying he thinks the judges sometimes base their decision more on the “sales pitch” than the science.

“I think STS is more based on the science,” he said.

The Society for Science said the scholars were selected based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects. The scholars were picked from 2,500 entrants from 795 high schools in 48 states and 14 other countries. 

“With a record-breaking number of applications, these exceptional young scientists and engineers represent the best in the nation,” said Maya Ajmera, president and chief executive of the Society for Science. “We are thrilled to celebrate their ingenuity, hard work and passion for STEM.”

Zhou last year was one of four Culver students who were selected to take part in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles after placing first at the Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair.  

Zhou said he plans to continue to perfect his sensing system, focusing on a flexible electronic skin that can be placed on the structure of many robots and work on sensing different textures.

“I need to further improve the accuracy of the sensing system to figure out what texture it is,” he said.

Zhou plans to enroll in the Jerome Fisher Program in management and technology at the University of Pennsylvania this fall. The dual degree program combines Penn Engineering and the Wharton School, enabling students not only to understand engineering and business concepts, but also to understand the integration of the two and how this intersection distinctively shapes our world.

He hopes to go to graduate school and eventually start his own technology company.