Google Thinks These 20 Teenagers Could Change Our World for the Better

Some 65 percent of the global population is lactose intolerant, meaning they have a reduced ability to produce the enzyme that allows the body to digest milk. Maria, 16, from Brazil, a country with at least 50 million lactose intolerant citizens, noticed that lactose-free milk was twice as expensive as regular, and that lactose enzyme pills from the pharmacy were also too pricey for the average Brazilian. Would it be possible, she wondered, to create a cheap, reusable product that hydrolyzed the lactose in milk, making it drinkable for everyone? In a multi-stage experiment, she developed capsules that do just that. The capsules, which are not edible, can be reused for up to a week, though their efficacy declines by the end. The capsules cost just pennies—Maria estimates that they could save a lactose-intolerant Brazilian family the equivalent of nearly $225 a year. 

Nikhil, 15, from New Jersey, has personal experience with malaria, a disease which kills nearly half a million people per year. His aunt in rural India contracted the disease, and her doctor didn’t have access to the technology needed to analyze the level of parasites in her blood, information important to knowing the correct medication and dose to give a patient. She nearly died. So Nikhil set out to create an affordable test to analyze blood parasite levels. His solution is an app that works with a smartphone and three cheap pieces of equipment—a photo box, a disk similar in shape to a CD and a hand-cranked centrifuge. Costing less than $50, the product, Nikhil says, works as well as hospital equipment costing $100,000. The world has already taken note—Nikhil is currently in talks with the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to share his app globally. 

As a South African, 16-year-old Kiara has first-hand experience with drought: the country is currently dealing with longtime record rainfall shortages, which have gravely endangered the food supply. Kiara wondered if it would be possible to create a product to hold water in soil, without using expensive, non-biodegradable, potentially dangerous chemicals. Her solution? Orange peel. Her research showed that the humble peel, usually thrown away, has incredible water-retaining power and can be turned into a powerful agent for maintaining soil moisture. Kiara’s interest in agricultural science extends all the way to its final product: cooking. A passionate cook, she’s fascinated by molecular gastronomy. She hopes to one day be both an agricultural scientist and a molecular gastronomy chef. 

The rapidly growing problem of Alzheimer's and other memory disorders means an increasing number of people have difficulty keeping track of everyday items like keys and glasses. Shriank, 16, tackled the issue by developing a wearable device called KeepTab that utilizes the Google Now personal assistant to track and find such items. The device uses a camera to capture images around the wearer, then uses cloud-based deep learning to recognize which items are discrete objects. The user can then take advantage of Google Now to "ask" for the item's location. In ordinary light, the device has a 90 percent find rate. Shriank, an avid hackathon participant, hopes to use his love of programming to create more problem-solving devices in the future. 

In drought-struck Zambia, farmers are struggling to maintain their farms—and the food supply for the nation. Mphatso, 18, thought farmers could benefit from more affordable supplies, such as fertilizers. He developed a portable station that can make nitrogen fertilizer and green pesticide using cheap, easily available ingredients like charcoal and leaves. As part of his research, he interviewed the Zambia's Minister of Transport to better understand the workings and needs of rural farms. His system has the potential to save farmers money and enhance their production, meaning more food for everyone. Mphatso, who has long been interested in issues of poverty in Africa, hopes to continue his path as an inventor. 

One of the fair's youngest winners, 13-year-old Anushka was interested in developing a solution for a problem many young people are probably either unaware of or find off-putting: care of chronic wounds. For people living with complex wounds that don't easily heal, wound care is a difficult, time-consuming process that's hard to monitor. If you change the bandage too much, it can make the wound worse, in addition to causing pain. So Anushka created a sensor that monitors wounds wirelessly, letting patients and doctors know the wound's condition without direct examination. The sensor, which can be printed on an Inkjet, uses biopolymer chitosan (a type of polysaccharide, or long-chain carbohydrate) and carbon nanoparticles. The 13-year-old Portlander, who has already won multiple science fairs, hopes to attend Stanford, Harvard or MIT. 

Though she's still years away from her driver's license, 13-year-old Californian Nishita is fascinated by car production. When she learned that quality control for cars' exteriors is still done by a subjective visual assessment, she wondered if the process could be automated. So she developed a scanning system to detect surface defects on metal using laser light reflection. She plans to add to this by creating a robotic arm to hold the sensor. Eventually, she hopes the system will be implemented in auto factories, making the quality control process more efficient and less wasteful, and potentially leading to more affordable cars. Perhaps in time for her own driving test? 

Lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, is usually discovered so late its victims have little chance of survival. But people with lung cancer, 18-year-old Zheng learned, have a unique chemical "signature" in their breath. Inspired by a teacher diagnosed with the disease, the young Malaysian created a sensor to detect these chemicals. He tested the sensor on three groups by having them breathe into a tube: lung cancer patients, people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and healthy nonsmokers. The sensor could accurately detect which patients had lung cancer, giving results in less than 10 minutes at a cost of around $1 per test. Fascinated by science ever since his father gave him a light microscope at the age of 8, Zheng's role model is Marie Curie. He hopes to pursue biomedical engineering. 

Disturbed by the shortcomings of standard breast cancer tests, this 14-year-old Californian took the matter into her own hands. She used her coding skills to develop an automated system for analyzing digital mammograms and predicting future cancer risk. The system takes out the subjective element of a human radiologist and, Anika hopes, results in a lower false-positive rate than current methods. The high school freshman has "no idea" what she wants to be when she grows up (totally fair!), but hopes winning the Google prize will bring recognition to her project and potentially help women in the future. 

This 15-year-old Virginia native developed a smartphone program to analyze and recognize unknown substances—food, cloth, metal, plants and so on. His system involves putting the smartphone in a box to take both normal and infrared pictures of the sample in question. These images are then processed through his program to recognize the sample's color and shape. His tests so far have been highly accurate. He hopes his system might one day be a low-cost way of detecting disease by recognizing things like cancer cells. The longtime computer aficionado hopes to attend Carnegie Mellon University one day. 

This Massachusetts teen, who's been building rockets since he was in the sixth grade, has created a more efficient way of controlling rockets. Using 3D printed rocket models, he tested various kinds of fins and guidance systems in a wind tunnel and evaluated their efficiency. He discovered that synthetic jet actuators, aeroacoustic devices currently used in heavy aircraft but not in rockets, were the best. His discovery could help rockets perform better and use less fuel. The high schooler, who takes a ferry to school every day from his island home, would like to work at a commerical space flight company one day. 

As in many parts of the world, rice is a staple food in India, home to 15-year-old Mansha. But the rice growing process can waste a huge amount of water, a major problem in an increasingly drought-prone world. Mansha has used her scientific knowledge to help remedy the situation by creating an automatic water management system that tracks data on the rice plants in each paddy and keeps crops from being over-watered. Her system could save up to 30 percent on water usage. The high schooler, who loves tennis and travel, hopes to pursue a STEM career in the future.