17yearold

Meet Ameya Kharade, the 17-year-old Nashua student whose $1,800 brain-reading system aims to turn brain activity into speech at implant-like speeds without surgery

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Meet Ameya Kharade, the 17-year-old Nashua student whose $1,800 brain-reading system aims to turn brain activity into speech at implant-like speeds without surgery

According to Barron Prize Winners website data, Ameya’s work is rooted in his close family member’s loss of speech following a stroke when Ameya was seven For someone who can speak, putting a thought into words is almost effortless. For millions of people living with conditions such as ALS, severe stroke or paralysis, that simple … Read more

Meet Alexander Du, the 17-year-old Sewickley student who built $170 AI-powered glasses to help visually impaired users navigate after his grandmother lost her sight

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Meet Alexander Du, the 17-year-old Sewickley student who built $170 AI-powered glasses to help visually impaired users navigate after his grandmother lost her sight

Alexander Du, a 17-year-old student from Sewickley, Pennsylvania, has been named a 2026 Presidential AI Challenge National Champion for inventing IRIS, an AI-powered wearable designed to help blind and visually impaired people navigate their surroundings. The teen built the $170 system after watching his grandmother struggle to navigate the world differently after losing her sight. … Read more

Meet Praadhyumn Indaana, the 17-year-old Montvale, New Jersey student whose AI model cut nuclear reactor heat-limit prediction error from about 63% to 5.5%; he won $50,000

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Meet Praadhyumn Indaana, the 17-year-old Montvale, New Jersey student whose AI model cut nuclear reactor heat-limit prediction error from about 63% to 5.5%; he won $50,000

Pradhyumn Indaana, the 17-year-old Montvale, New Jersey student (Image Credit: Davidson Institute) A better understanding of how much heat a nuclear reactor can safely handle could have implications far beyond a single engineering calculation. For 17-year-old Praadhyumn Indaana of Montvale, New Jersey, that challenge became the focus of an eight-month research project combining physics and … Read more

Meet Tanishka Aglave, the 17-year-old Valrico, Florida student who built a curry leaf treatment, steam system and AI tool to fight citrus greening; she won $50,000

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Meet Tanishka Aglave, the 17-year-old Valrico, Florida student who built a curry leaf treatment, steam system and AI tool to fight citrus greening; she won $50,000

The research was started by Aglave as a freshman and took over 300 hours to complete, often working two hours in the laboratory every other day after school. For Tanishka Aglave, citrus greening isn’t simply a problem that exists in textbooks or agricultural research papers. She watched it take a toll on Florida citrus growers, … Read more

Meet Henry Xie: The 17-year-old Portland student whose method made smaller AI models more empathetic in at least 90% of tests

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Meet Henry Xie: The 17-year-old Portland student whose method made smaller AI models more empathetic in at least 90% of tests

A 17-year-old student from Portland, Oregon, has developed a two-step training method that helps small artificial intelligence models copy the empathetic communication style of much larger systems. The method achieved higher empathy ratings in at least 90 per cent of comparison tests. Henry Xie, a senior at Westview High School in Portland, created the computer … Read more

Meet Daniel Zhang, the 17-year-old San Diego student who lost his grandmother to cancer at nine, then built a 72-card cancer game reaching 1,500 children

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Meet Daniel Zhang, the 17-year-old San Diego student who lost his grandmother to cancer at nine, then built a 72-card cancer game reaching 1,500 children

When Daniel Zhang was nine, cancer was something he could not understand. His grandmother had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the months that followed were filled with hospital visits, treatments and questions that were difficult for a child to process. Years later, that experience would inspire the San Diego teenager to create something designed … Read more

Meet Anvith Yalamanchili, the 17-year-old Dubai student who watched his brother’s school commute triple to 45 minutes and built a free carpool service that drew 1,000 sign-ups

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Meet Anvith Yalamanchili, the 17-year-old Dubai student who watched his brother’s school commute triple to 45 minutes and built a free carpool service that drew 1,000 sign-ups

Anvith Yalamanchili,17, has developed a car-pooling platform that has received institutional backing too from Damac When a student’s morning school journey in Dubai Sports City suddenly tripled from 15 minutes to 45 minutes after three new campuses opened nearby, his older brother decided to find a way to solve the traffic problem. Anvith Yalamanchili, a … Read more

Meet Benjamin Choi, a 17-year-old who built a $300 mind-controlled prosthetic arm that reads brainwaves through non-invasive electrodes

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Meet Benjamin Choi, a 17-year-old who built a $300 mind-controlled prosthetic arm that reads brainwaves through non-invasive electrodes

Each one of us spent the pandemic doing something that we normally wouldn’t have the time to. While some picked up numerous indoor hobbies, others studied hard enough to change career pathways. Benjamin Choi, a then 17-year-old kid, put his spare time during the phase to design an accessible device that does not require brain … Read more

Meet Jonathan Thai, the 17-year-old from Alpharetta, Georgia whose nonprofit raised $30,000, donated 400 bikes and taught 350 children to ride

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Meet Jonathan Thai, the 17-year-old from Alpharetta, Georgia whose nonprofit raised $30,000, donated 400 bikes and taught 350 children to ride

A 17-year-old high school student from Alpharetta, Georgia, has built a non-profit organization that has raised over $30,000, distributed 400 bicycles and taught hundreds of children how to ride safely. Jonathan Thai, a competitive triathlete and rising high school senior, founded Pedal Forward in early 2025 after a major outdoor retailer shuttered its local community … Read more

Meet Aditi Paudel, a 17-year-old high school student appointed as Japan’s first literacy ambassador

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Meet Aditi Paudel, a 17-year-old high school student appointed as Japan's first literacy ambassador

Born in Japan, and raised in Nepal during her early childhood, Aditi Paudel had always shown an affinity towards reading. Her earliest memory of reading is of her grandfather handing her a newspaper filled with intricate Devanagari script when she was still in preschool. But to the surprise of those around her, she was still … Read more