The 2025 Boston University Regional Brain Bee was held on:
Sunday, March 23rd, 2025
10:30 AM – 4:30 PM
GSU Auditorium, George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
2025 Brain Bee:
On Sunday, March 23rd, we held our 2nd annual Brain Bee, which featured some pretty fierce competition! After nearly 40 correct questions in a row, we were able to crown a winner: congratulations to Arjun Venkateshwaran, who will be moving on to the National Brain Bee held at Rutgers in May. A huge congrats to our 2nd and 3rd place winners, Siya Singhal and Mahima Ganesan!
Thank you to our judges, Dr. Kyle Gobrogge, Dr. Mark Howe, and Dr. Lynne Chantranupong; our Guest Speaker, Caitlyn Cody; and all the graduate and undergraduate volunteers who helped out at the event! It was an eventful and fun day and none of it would be possible without you!
Registration:
Please note: Student contestants can only register for one regional brain bee per calendar year.
Participation is free and open to all students who wish to attend. Space is limited so advance registration is required. To register, please fill out this form.
Registration Deadline is March 16th at 11:59 PM.
Brain Bee Overview:
The BU Regional Brain Bee is a regional chapter of the International Brain Bee, an annual competition for high school students testing their knowledge in the field of neuroscience, sponsored in part by the Society for Neuroscience, the largest professional Neuroscience society in the world.
The winner of our regional competition will represent Boston University at the 2025 US National Brain Bee, which will be held in person at the Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, through May 3 – 4, 2025.
National champions from around the world will go on to compete in the 2025 International Brain Bee, which will be held virtually in conjunction with the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA in late September.
Event Schedule:
Competition Format:
Round 1: Written Exam
Contestants will give open-ended answers to a 30+ question written exam. All contestants will answer the same questions in a set amount of time.
Lunch Break & Neuroscience Educational Programming
Round 2: Oral Response Round
Students will each answer questions based on the “Brain Facts” textbook orally. After two incorrect answers, students will be eliminated. Top scorers will move on to Round 3.
Round 3: Final Elimination Round
Top scorers will answer questions at the same time using whiteboards. After two incorrect answers, students will be eliminated. The last contestant standing will be crowned the winner!
Please note that specific aspects of the competition format may vary from the above.
Study Guide:
Questions from all three rounds will be based on information contained in the 2018 edition of Brain Facts, a publication of the Society for Neuroscience, which can be downloaded here.
Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers in the BU Brain Bee. In addition, the 1st place winner may go onto the national Brain Bee in Florida.
Other Important Information:
All students willing to travel to Boston for the Brain Bee are eligible to compete.
Students of all ages are eligible to compete; however, only students between the ages of 13-19 years old will be eligible to move on to the National competition in April.
Students may only compete in one Regional Brain Bee per year.
Contestants and parents may not use any recording devices or take notes of any kind during the competition.
Contact:
For any questions/concerns, please contact prernas7@bu.edu.