LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (WDVM) — Two Loudoun County high school students have created a research fellowship program that spans across the globe.

Kamran Majid and Rahul Kumar created ALUNA Research at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when they realized their extracurricular science and math activities would be canceled.

The two high schoolers wanted to connect others who were interested in furthering their education in the fields by being able to contribute their research to published scientific journals.

The fellowship program has grown beyond just Loudoun County, expanding to other countries such as Ghana, Egypt, and India.

“It’s essentially a fellowship in which researchers that are high school students are able to collaborate with other high school students and do real scientific research,” said Kumar.

The fellowship allows students to conduct research in a field that they are interested in. ALUNA Research has its fellows read more prestigious papers written at universities to get an understanding of the material they will need to produce. The goal is to contribute a new finding to the science field before getting it published.

“We have research in the process of publication to prestigious high school journals and machine learning models published on medical imaging websites for hospitals to utilize,” said Majid.

Majid says that the program has allowed fifty students to create an impact in their community. ALUNA Research is still looking for students to participate, and you can find that information on their website.