Total of 16 finalists will compete for scholarships worth $50,000.
Two students from India and four Indian American students have been selected to compete in the finals of the sixth annual ‘Google Science Fair 2016’ to be held in September, in Silicon Valley. The 16 finalists will compete for the $50,000 scholarship.
Shriank K, 15, from Bengaluru, has developed a device to aid memory with deep learning algorithms. The device called KeepTab is a wearable device-based solution which uses a cloud-based deep-learning framework to aid human memory to recall the location of day-to-day objects.
“In this project, we’ve considered single/movable camera on a wearable for economic reasons and proving the core concept of object recognition and tracking their location within certain range, like a home, and also get feedback from someone suffering chronic forgetfulness. This could also be extended to fixed/multiple cameras, and for multiple users by using the same concept,” said Google.
Studying at National Public School, Indiranagar in Bangalore, Shriank was also a finalist at the FIRST LEGO League World Championships in 2012.
Mansha Fathima, 15, a student at the Sadhu Vaswani International School in Hyderabad, has developed an automated water management and monitoring system in paddy fields which ensure limited manual monitoring by the farmers.
In the system, everything is automated— the opening and closing of the reservoir and field gates, checking the age of the plant and corresponding optimum water level required for that period of plant age. Farmers can monitor the water level in the field by using their mobile phones as they constantly receive alerts on the field work.
The Indian American students who have been included in the final list are Anika Cheerla (14), Anushka Naiknaware (13), Nikhil Gopal (15) and Nishita Belur (13).
Anika Cheerla has developed an automated model that can accurately predict the probability of an individual developing breast cancer in the future from her screening mammograms.
Nishita Belur from California has been selected for the finals for her project that detects metal surface defects using laser light reflection.
Anushka Naiknaware from Portland, Oregon, created an inexpensive, biocompatible, and reliable sensor which can detect and monitor the moisture level in the wound dressing. This approach uses chitosan and carbon nanoparticles to effectively obtain all the required features.
Nikhil Gopal, 15, from New Jersey, created a portable system to detect malaria proteins using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). The system uses a smartphone and a microfluidic disc which uses centrifugal force instead of electricity to mix reagents.
Google says that the projects are “bursting with the potential to change the world.” The Grand Prize winner will receive $50,000 in scholarship funding. The awards celebration will be held on September 28.