Washington:
Several Indian-Americans are among over 100 student who will showcase their inventions and science projects at the White House Science Fair hosted by President Barack Obama.
During the day-long science fair on Monday, Obama will also announce new steps as part of his Educate to Innovate campaign to get more girls and boys, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, inspired and prepared to excel in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Building on these announcements, this year’s White House Science Fair will include a focus on diversity and inclusion in STEM, an official release said.
Several Indian-American students will showcase their projects.
For instance, Trisha Prabhu, 14, from Illinois would showcase her computer program “Rethink” that alerts users when an outgoing message contains language that is potentially abusive and hurtful.
Trisha earned a spot in the 2014 Google Science Fair to showcase her innovative project.
Ninth-grader Sahil Doshi, from Pittsburgh, has designed an innovative carbon-dioxide powered battery called PolluCell.
Comprised of multiple electrochemical cells wired in parallel circuits, PolluCell harnesses the power of carbon dioxide and waste materials to generate electricity, reducing the environmental effects of pollution.
Nikhil Behari, 14, from Pennsylvania has developed a security system that is easy to use, versatile and effective in protecting online data.
He connected sensors to a microprocessor he had programmed to detect keystroke pressure, and used a separate program to measure action and pause time as users type.
By analysing data from these devices, Nikhil discovered that keystroke-based authentication is a potentially powerful technique for distinguishing and authenticating individuals.
Ruchi Pandya, 18, from San Jose, California has combined nanotechnology, biology and electrochemistry, to develop a system which requires small biological samples only a single drop of blood to test for specific cardiac biomarkers.
She developed a one-square centimeter carbon nanofiber electrode-based biosensor that has the potential to improve cardiac health diagnostics for patients around the world.
Anvita Gupta, 17, from Arizona has used machine learning to “teach” a computer to identify potential new drugs for cancer, tuberculosis, and Ebola.
She combined artificial intelligence techniques, 3D visualization and biomimicry to systematically discover which drugs might inhibit the interactions of intrinsically disordered proteins with other proteins.
These proteins make up 70 per cent of all cancer proteins and are mutated in tuberculosis and Ebola.
Anvita’s research earned her Third Place Medal of Distinction for Global Good at the 2015 Intel Science Talent Search.
