Risk pays off for science fair winner

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This article was published 14/04/2023 (1080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 53rd Western Manitoba Science Fair was a long time coming for Grade 11 student Diego Gaudet, who walked away from Tuesday’s competition as the Best of Fair winner.

For someone who’s been taking part in this regional event since Grade 1, the École La Source pupil views finally clinching the top prize as validation for not only his most recent project but also all the hard work he’s put in over the past decade.

“I was able to learn from my past projects to see how I could really present my stats and my project in a really effective way,” Gaudet told the Sun on Thursday afternoon over the phone.

Gaudet’s project for this year’s fair, titled “Appétent à l’aversion” or “Seeking Aversion,” explored people’s conception of risk as it applies to financial decisions.

More specifically, Gaudet was interested in studying how people’s implicit biases affect their decision-making abilities, like when an investor chooses to sell their stock the second it begins to dip in value.

“And that may not be the most logical decision, but [I was interested in] finding the bias towards that and really understanding, through statistics and math, how that bias can really affect us and how it can lead us to make illogical decisions.”

Gaudet said his interest in this topic was partially inspired by his experience living under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, where educators, business owners and community organizers were all forced to make some difficult financial decisions in the wake of this unprecedented health crisis.

This dilemma even extends to the Western Manitoba Science Fair, since organizers decided to put together virtual events throughout 2020-21 due to COVID concerns before returning to a limited in-person competition last year.

While this year’s fair marked a return to pre-pandemic conditions — where Brandon University hosted 332 elementary and high school students from 22 Westman institutions — this topic of pondering risk as it relates to finances is still very much swirling around in the back of Gaudet’s mind.

“It’s something that I’ve seen myself doing,” he said. “I’m risk averse. I don’t really like taking risks or spending [money]. So it was really something I was interested in and passionate about.”

Because of Gaudet’s first-place finish, he will represent western Manitoba at this year’s Canada-Wide Science Fair, which is taking place in Edmonton throughout May 14-19.

He will be accompanied by fellow Westman students Jessica Tichit (École Harrison, Grade 8), Armaan Chaudhari (Vincent Massey High School, Grade 9) and Spencer Pearce (École La Source, Grade 10) who all clinched runners-up positions in this year’s Western Manitoba Science Fair.

Given that this is Gaudet’s first time attending the national event in person, having participated in last year’s virtual show, he said he can’t wait to share his research with other students from across the country and lay the groundwork for his continued exploration of these topics during his graduating year and beyond.

“I’m looking forward to continuing my studies through STEM and seeing what science and math can do for me and what it can do for the good of this world,” he said.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson