Meet Gitanjali Rao, Time Magazine First-ever kid of the year.

Time has revealed its first-ever Kid of the Year, 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao.

Gitanjali Rao who was selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees spoke with actress and activist Angelina Jolie
about her astonishing work “using technology to tackle issues ranging
from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying,
and about her mission to create a global community of young innovators
to solve problems all over the world.”

When asked when she knew that science was a passion of hers, here’s what she had to say:

I feel like there wasn’t really one specific aha moment. I was always
someone who wanted to put a smile on someone’s face. That was my
everyday goal, just to make someone happy. And it soon turned into, How
can we bring positivity and community to the place we live? And then
when I was in second or third grade, I started thinking about how can we
use science and technology to create social change. I was like 10 when I
told my parents that I wanted to research carbon nanotube sensor
technology at the Denver Water quality research lab, and my mom was
like, “A what?”

Concerning her latest innovations which help prevent cyberbullying:

It’s a service called Kindly—there’s an app and a
Chrome ­extension—which is able to detect cyberbullying at an early
stage, based on artificial-­intelligence technology. I started to
hard-code in some words that could be considered bullying, and then my
engine took those words and identified words that are similar. You type
in a word or phrase, and it’s able to pick it up if it’s bullying, and
it gives you the option to edit it or send it the way it is. The goal is
not to punish. As a teenager, I know teenagers tend to lash out
sometimes. Instead, it gives you the chance to rethink what you’re
saying so that you know what to do next time around.

Concerning her “innovation sessions”:

 I just looked at what worked for me and decided to share it with
everyone else. So I made this process that I use for everything now:
it’s observe, brainstorm, research, build, communicate. It started with a
simple presentation and lesson plans, and then I started adding labs
and contests that students could do. Now I’ve partnered with rural
schools, girls in STEM organizations, museums all across the world, and
bigger organizations like Shanghai International Youth Science and
Technology group and the Royal Academy of Engineering in London to run
innovation workshops.

Concerning what she’s working on now:

I’m currently working on an easy way to help detect bio-contaminants
in water—things like parasites. I’m hoping for this to be something
that’s inexpensive and accurate so that people in third-world countries
can identify what’s in their water.

(Source: BellaNaija)