COLORADO: Indian-American Gitanjali Rao, 11, has been announced the winner of Discovery Education’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2017 for her prototype water lead contamination detector called 'Tethys'. The sensor-based device detects the quality of water and shares the results to a mobile application via bluetooth. Rao was selected from a group of 10 finalists, out of which five were Indian-Americans.
Rao's product is designed to be portable and easy to use, allowing individuals to test water safety whenever needed. Rao hopes to solve water contamination crisis and decrease long-term health effects from lead exposure. The seventh-grader of STEM School and Academy said, “Millions of people around the world are exposed to water containing lead and its harmful side affects. My solution addresses a core issue of speedy detection of lead contamination, allowing preventive action and saving lives. There are over 5000 water systems in the US alone with lead contamination issues. Detection and preventive action can help mitigate the problem.”
“If you take a shower in contaminated water, you do get rashes and that can easily be studied by an epidemiologist. And if somebody drinks lead in their water, their children might have small, minor defects. I studied a little bit of both of these topics since I was really interested in these fieleds and then I came up with this device to help save lives,” she said. Rao wants to be either a geneticist or a epidemiologist. She, along with the other finalists had the opportunity to work directly with a 3M scientist to develop their innovations as part of a unique summer mentorship program. Rao was paired with Dr Kathleen Shafer, a 3M research specialist who develops new plastics technologies that have real-world applications in dentistry and other fields.
Paul Keel, senior vice president of business development and marketing-sales at 3M released a statement saying, “3M's commitment to the next generation of science leaders is energised each year by the creativity and ingenuity of these young scientists. Making the world a better place through science starts with a spark of curiosity, which leads to passion- and results in making an impact. 3M is inspired by these finalists and their contributions to making lives better.”
