Proving President Joe Biden’s words, “Indian Americans are taking over the country,” right, four Indian-origin teens finished among the top 10 winners of the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021. Also called the US’ Junior Nobel, the oldest and most prestigious STEM competition discovers the most innovative of budding scientists among high school seniors every year. Propelled by compelling issues that cripple the pace of day-to-day life, these four teens from the Indian community in USA developed simple, unique, low-cost solutions, demonstrating their potential to become scientists and innovators for the humankind.

Eshani Jha, California

17-year-old Eshani Jha from California ranked third in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021 and bagged a cash award of US$ 150,000 for her low-cost water filtration device named Biochar. Eshani Jha’s water purification system removes not only heavy metals including lead, but also pesticides, micro plastics, and pharmaceuticals from drinking water. A chemical engineering aspirant, she assures that her invention will be useful in places like Flint in Michigan where water is severely polluted with metals like lead.

A resident of San Jose, Eshani Jha credits her invention to her home state in India. During a trip to India a few years back, she had an exposure to the underprivilege’s suffering from water-borne diseases due to their consumption of contaminated water. She learned that the slum dwellers could not afford water filters due to high costs. This bitter reality propelled her to find a solution to the problem. Eshani, a senior at Lynbrook High School, has been studying on water contamination issues since middle school.

Gopal Krishna Goel, Oregon 

Among the four Indian American winners of the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021, 17-year-old Gopal Krishna Goel secured the 4^th position. A homeschooled math genius from Portland, Oregon, Gopal made it to the top 10 for his research on mathematical properties of random matrices. He is confident that the award-winning research will play a key role in the field of meteorology, nuclear physics, and quantum field theory. His research on the connection between randomness and probability will stimulate the search for the true nature of quantum gravity, which is usually known as the theory of everything, according to him. Gopal received a US$ 100,000 award.

Vetri Vel, Maine

The youngest of all the finalists in the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search, 16-year-old Vetri Vel from Maine is in the sixth place. A resident of Bangor, Vetri combined his scientific thinking with empathy for the elderly who do not have 24-hr human support. On knowing that his grandmother had fallen in India, he hit upon the idea of building a fall detection device for the elderly with difficulty movement or limited mobility. Easy to be mounted on a wall, the device works on the principle of thermal imaging and deep learning. Even in the dark, “it can precisely capture images and classify them using a trained neural network.” When discrepancies are found between two or three images, the device sends an alert message to those residing nearby for help in real time.

Vetri believes that his real-time fall detection system will improve the quality of life for senior citizens at long-term care facilities.

Alay Shah, Texas 

Among the top ten winners of the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search, 17-year-old Alay Shah from Texas finished seventh and earned a US$ 70,000 award for developing a possible low-cost alternative to MRIs. The diagnostic tool he developed can identify neurological disorders by tracking eye movements. On knowing that injured footballers are immediately taken for an eye checkup to find concussion, Alay started working on the idea of using abnormal eye movements for accurate detection of other neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and multiple sclerosis.

A resident of Plano, Alay Shah has integrated to the device an infrared camera that uses the software he coded. The device also uses deep learning algorithms to analyze and interpret the date on pupil movement. He has already tested the tool successfully on 200 patients.

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Giving sight to the blind is the best act of leading them towards light, vision and knowledge. Restoring the lost eyesight of the visually impaired is the best humanitarian deed one could do to others. This is what keeps Indian American Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli motivated for and dedicated to his mission of helping the blind in India and other developing countries.

The founder of ‘The I Mission’ initiative for the welfare of blind children, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli from Oregon finds vision the most important of all human senses. A sophomore at Westview High School in Portland, he founded The I Mission in 2016, aiming to help the blind cope with learning difficulties and get them blessed with sight.

Since the inception of The I Mission in Oregon, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli has organized several eye-health screening camps in the rural backwaters of India. He has collaborated with two ophthalmological organizations in India to reach out to the visually challenged people from underprivileged backgrounds.

India is the first place of his choice to work the welfare of the visually impaired there. In October 2017, the Times of India reported, “India is now home to the world’s largest number of blind people.” A whopping 15 million out of the 37 million visually challenged people all over the world are in India. 75% of India’s total blind populace can be cured, but the dire shortage of eye donations and the acute dearth of optometrists are some of the critical hindrances to the cure.

Indian American teen Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli takes flights to India for an annual service trip every year. On his first trip to India in 2016, The I Mission conducted cataract surgeries to eight elderly patients with a critical vision problem. Postsurgical support was given to the patients so that they did not complain of any discomfort after the surgery. Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli’s The I Mission also donated two Perkins mechanical braillers to a rural south Indian school in a bid to help the school’s visually impaired girl students with reading.

Oregon-based Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli’s efforts towards restoring the lost vision of the blind in India were amplified during his second trip. On his next trip to India, The I Mission arranged for 48 cataract surgeries to the poor, one retinal surgery, and adopted three blind schools there. At first, those who require a cataract or retina surgery are identified through a screening test at the eye-checking camps.

Also Check: Indian Student’s Solution for Parking Problems in USA

Apart from arranging for eye-health checkups and surgical treatment for the blind in rural India, The I Mission conducts academic workshops to help students prepare for competitive platforms including MathCounts by developing their cognition in math, public speaking and comprehension. The workshops comprise of fun and engaging activities for students with different receptivity levels.

At The I Mission, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli organizes cultural events for both young students and adults to express themselves and thereby overcoming their inhibitions. Several conglomerates, including Nike and Intel have joined The I Mission and contributed to the cause that Indian American Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli espouses wholeheartedly.

Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli is also the Vice President of leadership at HOSA in Oregon, a professional student organization offering a unique leadership development and motivation program to students in health care. Oregon HOSA is endorsed by the US Department of Education.

This story is part of our continued series of inspiring stories about young Indians in USA, at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel. Indian Eagle is a leading air-ticketing partner of Indian Americans, booking their cheap flights to India from USA throughout the year.    

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America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year is so coveted a title that middle school students across the United States compete in Discovery Education’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge every year. Among thousands of promising innovators and inventors with a problem-solving attitude, only the best ten make it to the grand finale of the most prestigious competition. 3M Young Scientist Challenge inspires young minds to think solutions for global issues from water crisis to energy shortage to climate change.

The ten finalists for America’s “Top Young Scientist of 2019” title include five Indian American teen students: Reshma Kosaraju of California, Jaya Choudhary of Michigan, Nishant Lahiri of New York, Camellia Sharma of Virginia, and Samyak Shrimali of Oregon. Unsurprisingly, there was the same number of Indian Americans among the finalists in 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2018.

Jaya Choudhary of Michigan: Energy Saving 

Among the finalists in 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2019 is 13 year-old Jaya Choudhary from Canton, Michigan. Jaya made it to the race for America’s “Top Young Scientist of 2019” title for her eco-friendly invention – Airflow Control Robot – which helps reduce power consumption and save on energy by controlling the flow of hot or cold air to unoccupied areas. Indian American Jaya Choudhury’s Airflow Control Robot is an effort towards lessening the impact of global climate change and energy crisis on the planet. She is a 7^th grader at Canton Charter Academy.

Reshma Kosaraju of California: Wildfire Prediction 

The California Camp fire in 2018, which claimed 90 lives and caused massive damages worth $17B to the wildlife of USA, prompted 13-year-old Reshma Kosaraju to develop an Artificial Intelligence-based predictive model that uses meteorological data and the existing fire index data to predict any possible incidence of forest fire.

A resident of San Jose, California, 7^th grader Reshma Kosaraju is among the 10 finalists of Discovery Education Network’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2019. Her wildfire predictive and preventive model is a boon to the United States that suffers an estimated economic loss of up to $350B due to the environmental damage caused by destructive forest fires.

Nishant Lahiri of New York: Carbon Dioxide Recycling 

A resident of Corning, New York, 14-year-old Nishant Lahiri developed iCART, an innovative, cost-effective solution to recycling carbon dioxide from the air. He believes that recycling carbon dioxide is a community effort towards addressing global warming. Indian American Nishant Lahiri’s iCART is an energy-efficient carbon capture solution that does not use electricity to absorb C02 from the ambient atmosphere of our homes and transmit it to a processing facility where carbon dioxide is recycled. So, no wonder why he is one of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2019 finalists.

Camellia Sharma of Virginia: Water Crisis Reduction  

12-year-old Camellia Sharma from Glen Allen, Virginia has developed underground water leakage system to help nations save water, at the current juncture of water crisis in some parts of the world, including India.

Owing to inadequate repairing of the aging water distribution systems underground, 50 billion cubic meters of water is wasted every year. The USA alone loses 8 billion cubic meters of water through leaky pipes. Water scarcity is a catastrophic problem in developing countries due to the eroding structural and hydraulic integrity of underground pipelines. Evidently, Indian American Camellia Sharma’s invention deserves to be among the finalists of Discovery Education’s “Top Young Scientist of 2019” challenge.

Samyak Shrimali of Oregon: Hand Hygiene Tracking 

One of the five Indian American finalists in 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2019, Samyak Shrimali from Portland, Oregon has created a sensor-based hygiene tracking system. The 14-year-old eighth grader’s innovation helps check whether one complies with the hand hygiene requirement in hospitals and other public places where nosocomial infections, if unchecked, heighten the mortality rate. His invention underlines the importance of tracking hand hygiene compliance during an epidemic.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2019 finalists will travel to St. Paul, Minnesota for an internship program, during which they will actualize their inventions or innovations into working solutions before the grand finale in October 2019. They will demonstrate the usefulness of their unique solutions in our everyday life to a panel of scientists, alongside competing in a series of scientific challenges. The winner of America’s “Top Young Scientist of 2019” title will receive a scholarship worth USD 25,000 and a free trip.

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Young Indian Americans are doing wonders beyond the imagination of the world. Recently, 15-year-old Tanishq Abraham from California became the youngest biomedical engineer in North America. Now three Indian American school students won top prizes at the 2018 International Olympiad in Math, Physics and History. Their achievements are new feathers in the cap of Indian American community and that of the American nation as well.

Indian American Gopal Goel from Portland, Oregon became one of the gold medalists at the 2018 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). A member of the United States Physics team, Gopal scored 36 including 9 in the experimental test and 27 in the theory exam at the international contest. Out of the 88 countries which participated in the 49^th International Physics Olympiad, the US Physics team finished seventh on the basis of the total medal count.

Interestingly, each of the five students of the physics team from India returned home with a gold medal. It is the Indian team’s first such grand achievement in the 21 years of the International Physics Olympiad. The American Association of Physics Teachers commended the US Physics team, including Portland-based Gopal Goel. The International Physics Olympiad is an annual global physics competition for high school students.

The 6-member US team of budding mathematicians owes its stupendous success in the 2018 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) to Indian American Mihir Singhal from California. A resident of Palo Alto in California, Mihir led the US team to beat the 115 other countries and win the first prize in the competition. The six team members including Mihir Singhal beat the other 609 participants and bagged five gold medals as well as one silver medal.

Coached by Po-Shen Loh, a professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, the US team for IMO took the first place for the third time in the International Mathematical Olympiad, which is considered as Olympics of mathematical competitions for high school students. Over 300,000 students take part in the American Mathematics Competitions which test their mathematical knowledge and problem-solving skills, to qualify for the US team for the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Indian American Shiva Oswal from California earned the first place for the United States in the 2018 International History Olympiad by winning five gold, four silver and two bronze medals. A middle school student in Cupertino, Shiva Oswal also bagged the coveted title of Overall Middle School Olympiad Champion. The US History Team for the Olympiad 2018 stood first with the total number of 40 medals, out of which Shiva Oswal bagged 11.

In November 2017, 13-year-old Shiva Oswal made his debut on American TV and won $250,000 in Who Wants to be a Millionaire Whiz Kids Edition. India and Canada finished second and third with 23 medals each in the 2018 International History Olympiad.

This news story about the Indian American achievers in the 2018 International Olympiad competitions is part of our continued effort at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal to promote the achievements of young Indian Americans. Subscribe to our free newsletter for the latest community news, regular updates on US visa & immigration, air travel news, and inspiring stories of Indian Americans.

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