News from the International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio: John Jay Senior Matt Casavant has won a third-place special award from the American Psychological Association Society and placed third in his category of Behavioral and Social Sciences!
Matt's research sought to develop a novel personalization software system that curates the first personalized nature virtual reality. Visit his ISEF site to learn more.
ISEF brings together over 1,500 students from 70 nations; all earned the right to compete at Regeneron ISEF 2025 by winning a top prize at a local, regional, state or national science competition.
Matt was a Grand Prize winner and placed first in Behavioral Science at the 2025 Regeneron Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF). He also placed second at the NYS Science and Engineering Fair at the NY Hall of Science in Queens.
The senior said that he came to his topic through his dual interests in space and medicine.
“One of the biggest issues associated with space travel is mental health,” said Matt. “Astronauts go through long periods of social isolation. I wanted to look at how technology could be used as an intervention.”
Matt learned that immersive virtual nature environments were used by NASA as well as clinicians around the world as an effective therapy, when access to nature was difficult. Yet, despite researchers identifying personal connections, such as to a beach or to the mountains, custom nature environments were not part of the current therapeutic offering.
“I created the first personalized virtual reality nature software!” said Matt. He used HTML, CSS and JavaScript to develop a user- friendly web application consisting of three interactive preference assessment tasks and a complex background software to create a therapy catered to the individual. “I hope to get a patent for the software I created.”
Learn more about Matt's Science Research journey in the profile posted on social media.