Reviewed by: Nathan Watson
One Indian Springs student is helping local communities access clean water
Reading time: 5 minutes
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When he’s not fishing at Indian Springs School’s lake, you can catch Max Lizee developing machine-learning models to give people information about how clean their drinking water is.
With help from the impressive faculty and resources at Indian Springs, Max brought his research all the way to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles.
We sat down with Max to hear about how Indian Springs supported his research—here’s what we learned.
Meet Max Lizee, a senior at Indian Springs School
Max is a senior at Indian Springs School who plays the tenor saxophone, loves to fish and explore all things outdoors. Since the eighth grade, he’s called Indian Springs home.
Because he loved spending time in nature, Max became interested in environmental issues and decided to delve deeper into these issues at Indian Springs.
In his junior year, Max conducted an independent study that combined his interest in machine learning with research centered on stormwater and sanitary sewer overflows.
Under the one-on-one guidance of a faculty mentor, Max developed a machine learning algorithm that could use precipitation data to predict when a sewer would overflow.
He titles his project: “Developing a Sanitary Sewer Overflow Prediction Model in Alabama using Predictive Maintenance Machine Learning.”
“I was researching it just so I could be more knowledgeable about it. I learned about how big of an issue it was, especially in a lot of low-income or minority communities because they’ve historically been underfunded and underrepresented.
This has caused a deteriorating infrastructure, especially focused around sewage or stormwater.”
Max Lizee, student, Indian Springs School
Sanitary sewer overflow predictions in Alabama
In his senior year, Max wanted to take his research a step further, so he took advantage of a unique opportunity at Indian Springs called the capstone project. This is essentially the high school version of a Ph.D.
Students conduct original and substantive research, convey their findings in papers, present their research in front of a panel of faculty members and defend their research to a panel of faculty members.
With help from his computer science teacher and data scientists from Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Max created a capstone project with two components.
“The first thing I did was a much simpler model. I looked at the whole county of Tuscaloosa, and the model said ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to whether or not the sewer would overflow based on precipitation information.
In the second iteration, I learned about GIS mapping technology so I could specify those predictions. Instead of making predictions over the whole region of Tuscaloosa, I specified it into census block groups, which are the smallest grouping of census data. That grouped different socio-economic and cultural factors.”
Max Lizee, student, Indian Springs School
The goal? To provide more access to information about clean and affordable drinking water and raise awareness of water contamination.
“You know how you can access air quality information on The Weather App on your phone? I wanted to see if I could achieve similar results about clean drinking water—so people can get advanced warnings.”
Max Lizee, student, Indian Springs School
Book a tour of Indian Springs’ campus today + see how they help students like Max thrive.
Max’s award-winning research
If you found Max’s work as impressive as I did, it seems like other professionals agree.
Here’s a look at the accolades Max won through his research project during the past year:
- Central Alabama Regional Science + Engineering Fair: Third place, Environmental + Earth Science Division
- Alabama Science + Engineering Fair: First place, Environmental Science Division + Future Scientist or Mathematician award
- Intel International Science + Engineering Fair: Finalist
How Indian Springs helps students thrive
Indian Springs is a 350-acre campus of opportunity. This unique school offers a chance for all students and families to experience the joy of learning and growth.
The school offers over 130 classes, including unique electives and the opportunity to take part in independent studies and get involved in 50+ student-run clubs.
Whether students pursue science, music or art—Indian Springs has a place for them.
“Indian Springs encourages you to pursue your passions independently, but they also make it easy for you to connect with teachers. I worked with the computer science teacher basically throughout my whole project.
Springs provides the environment for you to want to accomplish these things, and they also provide you the resources to do it.”
Max Lizee, student, Indian Springs School
To see more of this school and impressive students like Max, mark your calendar for these events:
Ready to visit? Schedule a tour of Indian Springs or Shadow Day—email admission@indiansprings.org or call 205.332.0563!
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