Junhao ChengHouston, TexasThe Village SchoolClass of 2027
Every technology choice is a science problem and a money problem.
I’m a senior at The Village School in Houston. I’ve worked at the bench on acoustofluidic devices and battery cells, and on the money side with battery-material prices, sourcing research and a team investment portfolio.
Most of the projects below come down to a trade-off: capacity against expansion, cost against supply, growth against liquidity.
Eight projects between the bench and the market
Bench experiments, devices, measurementsMarket prices, sourcing, portfolios
- Acoustofluidic devicesDuke · 2025–26
- Respiratory diagnosticsSEFH · 2025–26
- Dual-ion batteriesUT Dallas · 2026
- Waste-to-hydrogenSEFH · 2023–24
- Host-city modelHiMCM · 2025
- Battery price covarianceIndependent · 2026–
- Anode sourcingCATL · internship
- Asgard Assets portfolioWharton · 2025–26
Ordered by distance from the bench, not by date. Select a project to open it.
Selected work
Lab research, two science-fair projects, an independent study, an internship and two team competitions.
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Moving liquids with sound
Sound waves can push liquids and particles around inside a chip. Across three lab projects I fabricated the devices, tested them under the microscope, ran the simulations and analyzed the data.
500+PDMS devices fabricated
At the bench -
Delivery by design
Rapid tests are slowed less by their chemistry than by waiting for molecules to meet. For my science-fair poster I took a lab platform that uses sound to move them and explained it: the mechanism, the sound-on versus sound-off comparison, and the graphics.
15–20 minreadout reported for the lab’s platform
Near the bench -
Storing more charge without the swelling
In a graphite electrode, storing more charge means more expansion. I assembled cells, ran electrochemical tests and analyzed spectra to help study how the electrolyte changes that trade-off.
35+battery cells assembled
Near the bench -
Can everyday waste make hydrogen?
Hydrogen could replace fossil fuels, but it has to be separated from other compounds. In ninth grade, three of us compared three ways of getting it from waste, tried the most accessible one with a customized popcorn machine, and reported honestly that the result was inconclusive.
3 routescompared before choosing pyrolysis
Between the bench and the market -
Which city should host the Super Bowl?
Which city should host a Super Bowl if the environment counts? Our team built a model that compares host cities on energy, water, emissions, waste and transport, and was named a Finalist.
48 of 1,091teams named Finalist
Between the bench and the market -
When battery prices move together
A battery chemistry is also a bet on a basket of raw-material prices. Once I accounted for how those prices move together, 17 of 22 designs changed rank. Submitted to a journal in October 2026.
17 of 22design rankings changed once price co-movement was included
Between the bench and the market -
Sourcing bamboo for a battery anode
A sodium-ion anode made from bamboo-derived hard carbon is only as good as its supply. I researched prices and source locations, compared 15 sourcing options and recommended a region.
15sourcing options compared
Near the market -
A portfolio for a foundation
Four of us built a portfolio for a case-study foundation and reached the Global Finale. I did the company-level quantitative research, proposed much of the allocation and designed the report and pitch.
11 of 5,400+teams reached the Global Finale
At the market
Record
Results, and the stories behind a few of them.
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Wharton Global High School Investment Competition
A portfolio that had to do more than grow
One portfolio, four jobs: growth, withdrawals, a mission, and protection when markets fall.
Global Finalist
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0.671 to 0.678Seattle’s score before and after the nudge. Same ranking.
HiMCM 2025 · Team 16752
Would the answer change if the assumptions did?
Testing whether a host-city recommendation held up when the model’s inputs moved.
Problem B Finalist
Also: Canadian Chemistry Olympiad silver (2026) · TEAMS second in Texas (2026) · FBLA Texas fourth (2025) All results and stories
Writing
A poem about leaving Xiamen and an essay about a barefoot kid at a chorus camp in France.
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Poem8 stanzasRegional Silver Key, Poetry · 2024
Two Worlds
Two worlds but just one soulUncovered from the green hills of homeTarnished a bit from the journeyBut still a powerful gold.
Leaving Xiamen — the green hills and strawberry fields, the pond where I played tag, coconut trees in the fall — and finding one self across two homes.
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Personal essayabout 3 min read
Socks-Free
A sour, offensive stench slowly pervades the air in the dorm hallway. “Put on your socks! Stinky-feet!”
A barefoot childhood in Xiamen, a chorus camp in Autun, France, and the nickname that came with it.
Community
Mostly practical work: proposals, schedules, logistics and publicity for other students’ events.
- 2026–27School-wide Vice President (elected)Student Government
- 2026–27President (elected)Science National Honor Society
- September 2025 – presentVice PresidentViking Broadcast Club
- May 2023 – presentSinger, fundraising and publicity assistantEchoWellness
Away from the bench
Yes, that’s me in blue.
I’m usually up for a side quest, and not especially worried about looking ridiculous along the way.