The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge , one of the nation’s premier science competitions for grades 5-8, recently announced that five Indian American youths were among the top ten finalists.
The Indian American youth are Raghav Ganesh of Joaquin Miller Middle School in San Jose, Calif.; Amulya Garimella of Dorseyville Middle School in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Iris Gupta of Robert Frost Middle School in North Potomac, Maryland; Krishna Reddy of Kirby World Academy in Wichita Falls, Texas; and Sanjana Shah of John F. Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino, Calif.
Gupta believes too many people suffer from allergies, and by testing to find the correct amount of nanoparticles optimal for blocking allergens, her invention aims to give them some much needed relief.
To help those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and their caregivers, Ganesh’s invention predicts and prevents autistic meltdowns. Monitoring physiological and environmental factors that can cause and trigger stress, his wireless and wearable machine alerts the wearer and caregiver when any stressors rise above a certain threshold.
With the goal of preventing distractions while trying to concentrate, Garimella invented a distraction monitoring system that alerts the user of a distraction by measuring EEG brainwaves. When users get distracted, they will receive an alert reminding them to concentrate and get back to work.
While a breathalyzer for alcohol consumption exists, Reddy felt that there was need for a device that could detect more. Unhappy with the inability for a breathalyzer to detect other substances, Reddy created a pupillary reflex computer program and apparatus that measures pupil dilation.
After realizing the impact of heaving rainfalls in unprepared areas, Shah created a program to detect where cities may need more drains and where they may need to increase current drain pipe sizes. By using pipe network analysis modeled after city drain pipe maps, Shah can simulate heavy rainfall to see where possible flooding may occur.
