These Teens Plan To Change The World Through Invention
For Jeanelle Dao and Prisha Shroff, personal experience plus a commitment to improving lives equals a steady drive to make the world a better place.
At age 13, Prisha Shroff saw something that made her want to change the world. She was driving with her family from Los Angeles to their home in Chandler, Arizona, when a massive wildfire came into view and forced them to turn back.
She remembers thinking, “This isn’t just a small problem, it’s a global problem,” and decided to find a way to help.
The opportunity came through her middle-school science fair affiliated with the nonprofit Society for Science. For her project, Prisha designed a system by combining A.I. with satellite imagery from NASA and NOAA to predict potential wildfire hotspots and detect active fires.
Now 16, Prisha is working to include a function that would deploy a drone to an active fire and spray the area with retardant. “Ideally, I want to integrate this with our current wildland departments and fire stations,” she says.
Meanwhile, an eighth grader in San Jose, California, named Jeanelle Dao is unlocking a solution to a problem she learned about through her grandfather. He had arthritis in his hands, which made opening doors with a key not only difficult but also painful.
A seventh-grade Society for Science-affiliated science fair gave Jeanelle the chance to create a solution. After building endless custom circuit boards, she landed on her invention — a wireless mat called CONDUITS (Controlling Doors Using Interface Technology with Steps) that’s programmed to unlock a deadbolt in response to a specific, password-like set of foot taps.
“So basically people with hand disabilities don’t need to worry about the pain caused by using a key, because there is no key,” she says.
These innovative ideas brought both young inventors to Society for Science’s Broadcom MASTERS (now known as Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge), the country’s premier middle-school STEM competition.
Jeanelle and Prisha respectively carried home the 2022 and 2021 Lemelson Award for Invention, which recognizes competition finalists working on a promising solution to real-world problems.
We recently spoke to them about invention, the drive to make positive change in the world, and the importance of persistence.
These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
What started you down the path of STEM and invention? And what were some of the ideas or people who helped shape your interest in this topic?
Jeanelle: We had something called the STEAM Lab at our elementary school. They had green screens, iPads, and lots of random materials. Our teacher, Ms. Talley, would give us challenges, and we could use any of these things to try to solve it. This was a really good opportunity to just create with no boundaries. And it was really fun.
From a young age I was always curious about how things worked and how they were made. So whether it was building models out of Legos or just taking things apart, I was always trying to figure out the magic that made things tick.
Prisha: For me, there are two things. My mom gave me an Arduino board when I was younger, and I was like, “How does it work? How can this small computer somehow tell the clock what time it is?” That was when I realized the power of asking questions.
After that, I went to a project-based elementary school, where they introduced us to the scientific method and the engineering design process. We built golf courses, we had a shark tank, a Maker Faire, all of that kind of stuff — it was all stepping stones to getting to where I am today.
What is your invention, and how does it work?
Prisha: I created an A.I.-based wildfire prevention, detection, and suppression system that uses satellite and meteorological data from NASA and NOAA to predict hotspots — areas where wildfires can occur in the future. It also detects active wildfires. And I’m working on a feature that sends a drone to that location to spray fire retardant so we can prevent and suppress fires.
Jeanelle: My project is called CONDUITS (Controlling Doors Using Interface Technology with Steps). Currently three to six percent of people have carpal tunnel [syndrome] while some 12 percent have osteoarthritis. Both of those are hand disabilities that make it painful to use the joints that you need to turn a key to unlock your front door. I think our world should be a lot more accessible than that. So my project aims to help the disabled population make their houses accessible to them.
It’s a wireless mat that you would place in front of your front door, and you would step on it in a rhythmic pattern to unlock and lock the deadbolt. So people with hand disabilities don’t need to worry about the pain caused by using a key because there is no key. Something as simple as tapping your foot to the beat of a song could be the password to unlock your front door.
What’s your vision of an inventor?
Prisha: My definition for an inventor is somebody who likes to create new things, to solve problems, or to solve something that they see in their everyday life.
I think that you can still be an inventor even if you create a catapult out of popsicle sticks. That’s inventing, and so is creating a wildfire prevention system. All it is is creating something new.
Jeanelle: Some people might think of inventors as these mad scientists that sit at a table welding together pieces of metal. But I see them as being passionate about what they’re doing. I don’t see an inventor as a specific type of person, but more like a mindset of perseverance and passion.
I think I have that mindset, especially when it’s something that I can relate to. And I think some people would describe me as a little mad for wanting to sit in a garage for hours at a time, trying to figure out one piece of wiring.
What difference do you hope to make in the world?
Prisha: First, by creating solutions to solve different problems that we see. Second, I really want to help with climate change and global warming, because that’s a big part of our world today and a big problem. This is our planet, we should take care of it. I also want to change the world and make it a better place by giving opportunities to kids who don’t get the same opportunities that I get, in terms of education and resources.
Jeanelle: I want to create something that helps people and changes their lives. But more than that, I want to pass on my drive for innovation because the only way for our society to positively move forward is if we let kids do the things they’re passionate about and let them find solutions to the problems that they see in our society that we might not see ourselves.
What does a great teacher or mentor mean to you?
Prisha: They mean a lot to me, because I think that to create a project like this, you really need supporters and people that help you along the way. If something doesn’t work and you feel like giving up, they’re there to help you keep going. And I think that that’s really important, especially when you’re younger, trying to create a solution to a big problem.
Jeanelle: To me a great teacher or mentor is someone who encourages you to figure things out on your own. They won’t just tell you the answer — because you don’t learn that way. We can’t have kids find creative solutions to problems if we keep telling them how it should be done. I think it’s a lot more useful to kids if they figure out the process rather than the answer.
What do you say to young people who aspire to be an inventor?
Prisha: My motto is: Be curious, dream big, and never give up. Don’t just hope something happens — you should strive to make it happen. And I think that if you live by that every single day, you can definitely make an impact. Also, you don’t need to change the whole world, but you can still change someone’s whole world. And I think that if everyone changes someone’s whole world, then we can really change the entire world.
Jeanelle: I would tell them to start small. When you invent something, you learn something with that. And those lessons that you learn can make your next invention better. The project that I made is not the first thing that I’ve made, and nothing worked the first time. So don’t feel pressured to make your thing work the first time. A lot of times the failures that you make now prevent a failure later on, and failures teach you things.
