Global Indianstory Global Indian YouthKavya Kopparapu: Indian-American innovator’s device can predict brain tumours in seconds

Kavya Kopparapu: Indian-American innovator’s device can predict brain tumours in seconds

Written by: Charu Thakur

(August 21, 2022) In the summer of 2017, while reading a story about the US Senator John McCain, who was then battling the aggressive brain cancer – glioblastoma, Virgina-based Kaavya Kopparapu stumbled upon some startling facts. A high school junior then, she was shocked to learn that the prognosis for glioblastoma hasn’t improved in 30 years, and the patients typically survive for only 11 months after the diagnosis. The disturbing reality led her into cancer research, wherein she found a disconnect – as most research was focussed on diagnosing and treating cancer, using the cancer’s genetic signature to find the most effective treatment was a territory less explored. “To me, that was really surprising because we know so much more about the brain now, and we have so many improved chemotherapy and surgery techniques. It blew my mind that, despite all of that, we haven’t gotten any better at improving patient quality of life and prognosis,” the innovator told Harvard Edu.

This led the Global Indian to invent GlioVision, a deep-learning computer system powered by artificial intelligence that predicts brain tumour characteristics in a matter of seconds, with 100 percent accuracy and in the cost of traditional methods. Talking about the innovation, she told Harvard Edu, “Around 40 percent of glioblastoma patients have a genetic mutation that renders the standard treatment completely ineffective. So, these patients receive all the negative side effects of chemotherapy without any of the benefits of the treatment. That shows why genetic testing is so important.”

Innovator | Kavya Kooparapu | Global Indian

Kavya Kopparapu

The innovation, which has been granted a patent, won her the 2018 Davidson Institute for Talent Development Scholar Laureate, 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search Finalist, and 2018 US Presidential Scholar. Kavya, who also made it to TIME’s 25 Most Influential Teens of 2018, is currently a senior at Harvard University.

This love for science developed as early as middle school when Kavya saw two scientists performing an elephant toothpaste experiment at a science fair. “Basically, it’s when two chemicals are poured into a beaker together, and you get this giant column of foam that shoots up through the reaction. Seeing that as a sixth-grader, I was like, Woah, that’s cool. I want to do stuff like that as a job,” she told Seventeen. That was the beginning of her inning in the world of STEM, as the innovator fell in the love with engineering and understood how it could be used to impact people’s lives.

And she did exactly that when at age 16, she helped her grandfather, who was suffering from diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that damages blood vessels in the retina and can lead to complete loss of vision by making Eyeagnosis, a 3D printed smartphone app that recognises signs of diabetic retinopathy in photos of eyes and offer a preliminary diagnosis. She understood that timely diagnosis was important. “The lack of diagnosis is the biggest challenge. In India, there are programmes that send doctors into villages and slums, but there are a lot of patients and only so many ophthalmologists. What if there was a cheap, easy way for local clinicians to find new cases and refer them to a hospital?” the innovator told HerStory.

An alumnus of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia, Kavya also runs Girls Computing League, a non-profit dedicated to girls and low-income students’ access to advanced computer science topics to encourage more diversity in the tech field. “We’re really focused on teaching emerging technology to students across the world. We’re actually the first organisation to hold an artificial intelligence conference for high school students,” added the girl whose non-profit is now in 15 states of the US as well as in Japan. In the last few years, it has supported many initiatives including the biggest high school AI conference, coding clubs at schools, teacher professional development workshops and more. For the innovator, working for Girls Computing Code is the biggest achievement so far. “Being able to directly interface with the people that I’m impacting at our events has been amazing. They’re the whole reason that I do it.”

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Published on 21, Aug 2022

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Zain Samdani: The innovator’s robotic glove is helping patients with paralysed hands

(June 10, 2022) As a 15-year-old visiting India from Saudi Arabia, Zain Samdani had no idea that this family vacation was set to change the course of his life. A meeting with his partially paralysed distant maternal uncle left him "shocked." In the era of technology, seeing his uncle dependent on others for every small thing was nothing short of a horror. That encounter nudged this robotics enthusiast and innovator to develop Neuro-ExoHeal, an exoskeletal hand rehabilitation device that utilises neuroplasticity and Azure technology to help patients with neurological damage recover faster at an affordable price. The innovation not only left Google CEO Sundar Pichai impressed but also made the 21-year-old win Microsoft 2022 Imagine Cup World Championship, which is considered as the 'Olympics of Technology' with more than 10,000 participants from 160 countries. "Having been interested in robotics from a very young age, I started working with prosthetic designs in 2013. But I realised that cosmetic prosthetic hand could cost between ₹1-₹2 lakh while a robotic prosthetic hand was available anywhere between ₹40-₹50 lakh. I knew that affordability was the key. But the meeting with my uncle only strengthened my passion to find an affordable solution," Zain tells Global Indian.

ells Global Indian.

A robotics enthusiast in the making

The Hyderabad-born moved to Saudi Arabia at a very young age with his project manager father and homemaker mother. When he noticed that his mom was always busy with household chores and raising kids, the then five-year-old Zain promised to make her a robot that would ease her burden. "It was that early that my love for robotics began," laughs Zain who is currently in India after wrapping up his first-year exams at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.

For the Ashoka Young Changemaker 2021, it all started with that one idea and later progressed into in-depth research on the subject. However, things started to move when he began programming at age 12 and within a year, was into prosthetic designs. "For me it's a two-step process. I visualise the product in my head first, and then make it with a cardboard. Back then 3D printing was booming but was also expensive. To cut the cost, I reached out to Make India, a 3D printing company in Saudi Arabia who sent the code free of cost after hearing about the purpose behind it," says the innovator whose biggest takeaway from the incident was "to never stop asking."

How passion turned into a mission

The passion turned into a mission after the chance encounter with his paralysed uncle which led him to create ExoHeal. "It was upsetting to see that despite technological advancement in the world, nothing was done to help him move around." This nudged Zain to build a device based on the concept of neuroplasticity. Divided into a sensory glove for the functional hand and an exoskeletal robotic hand for the paralysed hand, the first prototype came into existence post extensive research and innumerable meetings with neuroscientists and physiotherapists.

[caption id="attachment_17917" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Zain Samdani[/caption]

During his research, the Global Teen Leader 2019 found that "the patients were frustrated with the system and had given up hope." This made Zain even more determined to give them a "sense of independence" and do things on their own, and led to the creation of Neuro-ExoHeal which helps a paralysed hand replicate a movement made by the functional hand. "The mirroring allows the neuron to trick the brain into believing that the paralysed hand is working perfectly, thus forming new neural connections."

The earliest prototype made him one of the 16 global finalists at the Google Science Fair in 2016, and later the advanced version recreated the magic in 2019. "My uncle could feel the sensation on the very first day of using Neuro-ExoHeal. It’s something that otherwise takes weeks or months to achieve," Zain beams with pride as his creation is on its way to a proper clinical trial in the next few months. "Pandemic in 2020 pushed the plans but now we are back on track," says the innovator who is happy with the initial response from many patients. "Seeing it work, many have been enquiring as to when it will be launched in the market."

Looking for a silver lining, always

Zain, who began as innovator and later moved to entrepreneurship, calls the journey transformative. "It essentially enabled me to look outward – to see what was going around me and make the right connection," reveals Zain who wants to make a two-fold impact. "I want to enable paralysed patients to regain independence and also want to work in the space of mental health."

The entrepreneur feels that overachievers like him are often under pressure to outdo themselves, and this takes a toll on mental health. It hit him hard in 2018 when was diagnosed with intermittent exotropia, a rare medical condition that doubles your vision every two or three hours. "It happened right before my boards and my studies were affected. My brain would shut down every few minutes due to constant doubling of my vision." Not one to give up, amidst the chaos, Zain Samdani decided to find the silver lining. "It gave me time to think about myself and that's when my raw artistic expression came out. I have been a painter but this break gave me time to explore my passions beyond innovation," says the innovator who recovered completely within two years with the help of rehabilitation. A poet and a painter, Zain loves unwinding with board games. For him, life is about knowing yourself but most importantly, making a positive impact that can change people’s lives.

Follow Zain Samdani on Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram

Reading Time: 6 min

Meet the first student club at Purdue University building a humanoid robot for space

(August 13, 2024) It was in June this year that Sunita Williams and her co-astronaut Butch Wilmore boarded Boeing's Starliner capsule for its first crewed mission. Originally slated to spend just eight days in space, they have now been stranded for over 50 days due to technical issues. Fresh reports suggest that their rescue may be delayed, potentially leaving them in space until February 2025, causing concern about their safe return, health risks and fuelled debates on the role of humanoid robots in space exploration. Amidst these discussions, students at Purdue University have taken the initiative to form the Humanoid Robot Club, becoming the first student group to build a humanoid robot designed for space missions. "When you are in space or exploring an active volcano or conducting deep-sea research, using robotics limits the loss of life in such scenarios," says Aarav Garg, the club's president. "Our biggest motivation is the idea that if something goes wrong in space, it's a robot at risk — not a human. This significantly reduces the potential for loss of life, which is one of the reason why a robot should exist in the first place." [caption id="attachment_38800" align="aligncenter" width="811"] Humanoid Robot Club[/caption] The

ze-full wp-image-38800" src="https://d2ei7nd8wfxnfk.cloudfront.net/youth/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/aarav3.jpg" alt="Aarav Garg | Global Indian" width="811" height="608" /> Humanoid Robot Club[/caption]

The 18-year-old and his friend Riddhi Gupta founded the Humanoid Robot Club in the spring session of 2024 after watching a video of Boston Dynamics, a company that builds humanoid robots. It sparked an epiphany that despite Purdue's diverse range of student clubs, none focused on humanoid robots. "Upon research, we found that there is no student club in the entire US that delves into humanoid robots. That's when we decided to launch our own since most existing efforts focus on research, but we wanted to actually build one," Aarav tells Global Indian.

Aiming for space

Their vision is ambitious — to be the first group of students to build a walking humanoid robot for space exploration. "No one else in the world is currently doing this," Aarav emphasises. Launched in March 2024, the club has already attracted over 400 members from various majors and degrees. "Ninety percent of our members are undergraduates, mostly from mechanical and electrical engineering," Aarav explains. "More than just a club, it's like a startup where students from diverse backgrounds, united by a shared enthusiasm for innovation, collaborate on building a humanoid robot."

The teenage innovator and entrepreneur, who founded a startup called TechNuttiez while still in school, has long been passionate about coding and innovation. His move to Purdue University in the US last fall felt like a natural extension of his interest in robotics. "As a freshman, I was excited to explore new opportunities. With my background in entrepreneurship and robotics from India, I quickly secured leadership positions in two different technology clubs at Purdue within just a month of starting university. During my first semester, I got exposure on how clubs operate at Purdue, which gave me a great head start," says Aarav, who ended up starting a new club at Purdue in his second semester.

Taking the legacy forward

Launching a club that gravitated towards the field of space came naturally to Aarav and his team, given Purdue's reputation as one of the best universities in aerospace in the world. "Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, are both alumni of Purdue University. Right now, we're the leading producer of top astronauts in the US," reveals Aarav, adding, "Each month, we have the opportunity to meet an astronaut who has been to the International Space Station, so it was only fitting that we ventured into this field."

Armed with the knowledge that humanoid robots can redefine the landscape of space exploration by offering versatility and adaptability in extraterrestrial environments, Aarav was keen to build a robot with human-like capabilities that can navigate complex terrain, manipulate tools, and interact with surroundings with agility. "They can work alongside humans too."

After spending the spring and summer semesters organising and planning, the team is eager to start building the robot in the upcoming fall semester. Having raised $95,000 in sponsorship from departments at Purdue, brands like Autodesk, Altium, and Unitree Robotics, and ten official partners, the Humanoid Robotics Club is using the fund to buy equipment for their lab. They recently signed an MOU to secure a workspace on campus at the newly opened John Martinson Lab of Entertainment and Engineering. "We'll have a dedicated space to set up our equipment, including three 3D printers, and where all the members will work. It's a small lab that we are excited to build."

[caption id="attachment_38801" align="aligncenter" width="811"] Aarav Garg and Riddhi Gupta with the head of AAE at Purdue [/caption]

Securing key support

Starting a new club at Purdue meant having the right allies, and they found the best one in Professor Yan Gu, who signed up as their primary advisor. Being the professor of mechanical engineering and head of the TRACE lab, the only lab at Purdue that works with humanoid robots, made her the perfect contender for the position. "I waited outside her office for three hours just to pitch the idea," Aarav recalls. His dedication paid off when, after their meeting, she agreed to become the faculty advisor. "We had so many sleepless nights preparing our pitches," he adds. But the club members continued to reach out to the deans of other engineering departments at Purdue, and in no time, they had seven faculty advisors onboard, a rare feat for a student club which is usually run with one-two advisors. "We have a faculty advisor from every department of engineering," beams Aarav with pride.

Building the future

This month the students will return to the university from their summer break, energised to take up the mammoth task of building the humanoid robot. "We've divided the robot's various body parts into separate projects," explains Aarav. "In our first year, we'll focus on the legs, aiming to build legs that can walk by the end of the year. Next year, we'll introduce the arms project, where some team members will work on constructing the arms while others continue refining the legs. In the third year, our focus will shift to vision systems and space-related challenges like zero gravity, making the robot autonomous so it can navigate an entire room on its own. Each year, we’ll add new projects and continue fine-tuning the existing ones."

A great deal of planning went into the project, leaving little room for error. However, the biggest challenge for Aarav has been balancing his managerial responsibilities with his passion for actually building the robot. "Juggling two different roles at once can be quite overwhelming," he admits. "But with leadership appointed in key roles, I now want to focus primarily on building the robot. We'll be working on it every day, that's my agenda for the next three years," says Aarav, who is majoring in robotics at Purdue University. "This allows me to constantly learn and apply my knowledge, which is incredibly rewarding."

[caption id="attachment_38803" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Team Humanoid Robot Club working on the humanoid robot HUBO[/caption]

Future goals - Looking to revolutionise space exploration

With his startup experience back home, Aarav brought the expertise needed to lead the club. "I'm replicating the model, but on a much larger scale," he explains. The knowledge and dedication of his team have impressed the leadership at Purdue University. "They see us as students on a mission. We don’t just operate as a club; we approach it like a startup and a research lab," Aarav says.

With only three years left at Purdue, Aarav and his team are determined to build a functional humanoid robot before they graduate. "Our goal is to have a basic walking humanoid robot completed by the spring of 2027," Aarav shares, expressing his hope that the robot will one day make its way to space. "We aim to build the robot, present it to NASA or SpaceX, and ensure that strong leadership continues the project even after we graduate. We understand this isn’t just a three-year endeavour and may require several more years. But once it's ready, we believe it will revolutionise space exploration," he signs off.

Follow Aarav Garg on LinkedIn

Angad Daryani: Infusing ‘praan’ into the environment by cutting down air pollution

(June 2, 2024) Blue skies, no masks, and clean air - that's how entrepreneur Angad Daryani and his clean tech startup Praan vision the world. An inspiration that he found while growing up with asthma in the heart of Mumbai. Each year, he would move to the hills during Diwali to breathe clean air. His constant struggle with air pollution in a country that comprises the 21 most polluted cities in the world was nothing short of a nightmare. But it wasn't until he shifted to the US for his higher studies that Angad's idea of making a change started taking shape after he realised that the air was more breathable. He wanted his family and friends to breathe the same clean air, but without dislocating them. That's when Praan started to take its form, a startup that doesn't clean up the atmosphere, instead, it creates localised hotspots of clean air in places that require it the most. "All I wanted to do was to figure out if at all it was possible to improve outdoor air quality, without government policy, without changes in consumer behaviour in short term, and to create a healthier environment through the private sector. Sounds

in short term, and to create a healthier environment through the private sector. Sounds crazy and unrealistic. Definitely was. Until we made it realistic," the entrepreneur said.

[caption id="attachment_20965" align="aligncenter" width="5760"] Angad Daryani is the founder of Praan.[/caption]

It was during his second year at the Georgia Institute of Technology while working on Project Breathe that it dawned upon him that while his parents' generation grew up excited for a bright future, the youngsters his age were reading about animals going extinct or water and air pollution. The apprehension of an uncertain and bleak future led him to bring about a change, and he found the solution in filter-less technology that took three years to prototype and develop. "At Praan, we believe that any technology built to tackle climate change or public health catastrophes should be a net positive. Hence, we spend our time building filterless, adaptable, and affordable devices which solve the problem at scale. Our technologies adapt to changing weather conditions and ensure that all captured pollutants are recycled," reads Praan website.

The low-cost and AI-based outdoor air purification systems come with a fan that pulls in polluted air, and filtered particles settle down in a collection chamber. Once filled, it notifies the customer who can empty it and put it back again, which according to the 23-year-old is a "30-second process." It was the challenging infrastructure requirement that prompted Angad to look at a solution that needed near zero maintenance. That's when the idea of filter-less technology came in. "We remove pollution from the air without any replaceable filters. So, there is no maintenance cost in owing these devices. Our mission is clean air for all. Our hardware has to be low cost," the Global Indian added.

What began as a project at Georgia Tech has now taken the form of a company that's growing and expanding, with the help of engineers, designers, and volunteers. Two years since its inception, the startup deployed its first product in India in June 2019 and has been working on improving it with better manufacturing quality and research. In February 2022, Praan secured $1.56 million in funding from Social Impact Capital which understands the need for a solution to the problem of air pollution that kills over 70 million people every year.

While Praan has catapulted Angad into the league of deep tech startup entrepreneurs, he has always been a keen learner. As young as eight, he made his first robot and by the time he turned 13, he had built his prototype of RepRap 3D printer. A self-learner who credits the internet for learning, dropped out of school in Class 9 as he "didn't want to rote learn concepts anymore" and started home-schooling. By 16, he was running two companies (Shark Kits and Makers Asylums) "which create products that engender curiosity and innovation." The entrepreneur and his team also developed a Virtual Brailler (in collaboration with MIT Media Labs) that converts any PDF document into braille.

But it is Praan that's helping Angad create the right impact with his work. Currently, the startup has found schools and industrial sites as its initial customers. So how does it work? Praan leases the hardware to its customers for a fixed price per month per device, which is then placed in strategic locations keeping in mind the architecture of the street, airflow, and pollution dynamics. "We have a process where we study the site and the pollution dynamics, we are able to analyse it in software, place our devices in the software as we place them in the real world, understand the impact, optimise it, and then install our hardware in the real world," he told YourStory. Praan aims to create hyper-local zones in places like malls, hotels, schools, and gardens with its flagship product Mach One.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gT97JwNOBE

With one office in California and another in Mumbai, Praan is now planning to expand through B2B deployments. "Climate problems can only be solved through deep-tech and hardware, and one has to change the world to deploy these solutions. Praan has taken the government, businesses, storytellers, and the best team along this journey to solve this problem together. Activism doesn't solve problems. The action does," the entrepreneur wrote on Medium.

Follow Angad Daryani on Linkedin and Twitter

Reading Time: 5 min

Sparsh: The Children’s Climate Prize 2022 winner merging innovation and sustainability

(February 14, 2023) It was 3.30 am in Singapore, and Sparsh was neck-deep in an assignment when an email popped up on his laptop. It read that the 17-year-old has won the Children's Climate Prize 2022 for his innovation - a thermal floater. "I was shocked and didn't know what to do. I screamed in joy, and I think I might have woken up some of my neighbours," laughs Sparsh, as he connects with Global Indian. The National University of Singapore student, who has received SEK 100,000 to develop his project (which converts energy from the sun into electrical energy), is ecstatic that he can now show his idea to the world. "I might be biased, but I think it's a revolutionary idea," adds the teenager, who hails from Patna. The idea first struck him when a family member back home fainted due to extreme heat, owing to a two-day blackout. "This annoyed me. Renewable energy is available in plenty but none of it is provided to us through regular supply of energy." He dove deeper into the idea, and started researching on the net, and realised that renewable energy is costly and takes up a lot of land space

ugh regular supply of energy." He dove deeper into the idea, and started researching on the net, and realised that renewable energy is costly and takes up a lot of land space (for installation). "That's when I decided to come up with a solution that was cheap, efficient and compact at the same time." Sparsh was all of 14 when he resolved to find an answer.

[caption id="attachment_27504" align="aligncenter" width="577"] Sparsh won the Children's Climate Prize 2022[/caption]

An interest that turned into passion

Electronics was something that fascinated the Patna-born even as a kid. Like most kids, he would dismantle all the toys to know what was inside. "Whenever I saw the television, I wanted to know what was inside it," he smiles, adding, "When our TV stopped working, I asked my dad to not trash it, as this was my chance to take a sneak peek into it. I actually broke it down to find what was inside it, but didn't understand a thing as I was just 8," he laughs. That's when he understood his inclination towards electronics.

[caption id="attachment_27506" align="aligncenter" width="763"] How Thermal Floater works[/caption]

But things took a turn for the best when Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) made it to his school when he was in Grade 7. Sparsh became one of the first students to enter it. "The Lab allowed me to view all the opportunities with electronics,” he says. “For the next few years, I learnt about electronics, 3D modelling, animation and coding."

Building a thermal floater

His first brush with ATL opened up a pathway of opportunities, so when he saw the problem of power outage in Patna, he knew he had to find a solution. While renewable energy was the solution, he still had to create an idea that was feasible and cheap to use the energy. The next two years went into research, a period he calls "challenging." "With no prior knowledge on thermo dynamics, material science and renewable energy, I had to read a lot to learn the concepts. Moreover, I had to check the feasibility of the idea before coming up with a prototype," reveals Sparsh, who came up with an impressive way to mitigate climate change by using thermal energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pzfj9m32MA

So, what exactly is a thermal floater? "It's a device that generates electricity from the heat of the sun. Unlike the solar panels, it uses water bodies, which hasn't been explored much before," explains the innovator, who has used the Seebeck effect to produce electricity. "In the thermal floater, the hot side is the sun and the cold side is the water body. So, when electrons move from the hot side to the cold side, electricity is generated." By making use of water bodies, it reduces the pressure on land resources and helps create potential for countries where land resources are scarce. Being a clean source of renewable energy, the thermal floater also helps reduce the evaporation from ponds, reservoirs and lakes, thus providing an environmental benefit of the solar-thermal energy in areas that are susceptible to droughts, as water loss due to evaporation can add up over time and contribute to a shortage.

Winning accolades

The concept has won him Children's Climate Prize 2022, and he is now keen to bring his "revolutionary idea" to a larger audience in the coming three years. He wants to use the prize money to file a patent and work towards the making of a full-fledged prototype, so that it could reach the market as soon as possible. Currently studying computer engineering at the National University of Singapore, Sparsh plans to launch his startup in the field of sustainability in the near future. "I also want the thermal floater to reach a wider audience in the coming years."

[caption id="attachment_27505" align="aligncenter" width="703"] Sparsh is currently studying at National University of Singapore[/caption]

While he is happy to have come up with a solution through thermal floater, Sparsh had a hard time balancing academics and project work. However, in his first year of graduation, he is happy to have found the right support system in his teachers at the NUS. "It's much easier to balance studies and thermal floater project here," says the boy, who loves photography and is also working on other AI projects. The teenager wants other youngsters to take the leap of faith, and use all the available resources to take that first step. "Believe in yourself, and develop the ideas that you have. Give wings to your ideas and dreams."

Reading Time: 4 min

Leena Rafeeq: UAE-based Indian develops AI app to detect eye diseases

(May 31, 2024) 12-year-old Dubai-based Kerala native Leena Rafeeq made headlines when she developed an AI-based app Ogler Eyescan to detect eye diseases and conditions. Interestingly, she was only 10 when she developed the app which is capable of detecting various eye conditions through a unique scanning process. "Using advanced computer vision, and machine learning algorithms, Ogler can analyse various parameters such as light and colour intensity, distance, and look-up points to locate the eyes within the frame range. It also identifies any light burst issues and if the eyes are positioned exactly inside the scanner frame," she said. [caption id="attachment_38056" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Leena Rafeeq[/caption] Using AI to create an impact A self-taught coder, the Global Indian built the app using machine learning algorithms and computer vision systems, thus leading to 70 percent accuracy in diagnosing potential eye conditions like arcus, melanoma, pterygium, and cataracts. "This app was developed natively with SwiftUI without any third-party libraries or packages, and it took me six months of research and development to bring this innovative app to life," she added. It was a year after the invention of the AI app that she submitted it to the app store. During her development journey,

hms and computer vision systems, thus leading to 70 percent accuracy in diagnosing potential eye conditions like arcus, melanoma, pterygium, and cataracts. "This app was developed natively with SwiftUI without any third-party libraries or packages, and it took me six months of research and development to bring this innovative app to life," she added. It was a year after the invention of the AI app that she submitted it to the app store. During her development journey, Leena expanded her expertise in areas such as eye conditions, computer vision, algorithms, machine learning models, and advanced Apple iOS development features, including sensor data processing, augmented reality (AR), CreateML, and CoreML. As of now, the app exclusively operates on iPhones from the 10th model onward, running iOS 16 or higher.

How it began

Leena's interest in programming and developing websites developed at a very young age. At the age of six, she was able to create a website from scratch for her school science exhibition. "My parents, who are both coders, are the reason I started gravitating towards coding. I created my first webpage at the age of six, and soon started teaching my younger sister Hana coding and programming," she recalled.

After toying with any ideas, she finally zeroed in on developing an app that aids in diagnosing diseases for users of any age. "This introduced me to Ogler Eye Scan, a program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to thoroughly scan your eyes and enable you to diagnose eye problems," she said. Explaining the benefits of the app, she revealed that it is capable of both - a comprehensive eye scan as well as disease detection. "The four disorders that our app can currently diagnose are melanoma, arcus, pterygium, and cataract. Additionally, it can perform a comprehensive scan that can detect all of these disorders at once. Using your GPS position, the app also lets you browse for eye hospitals in the area," Leena said. Moreover, that app can check pupil distance as well as compare previous scan results with the latest ones. She is glad that her app can help identify eye conditions at an early stage.

Expanding her horizons

The co-founder of Misrai, Leena is trying to be at the forefront of AI with her innovations. "With a passion for technology that ignited at the age of five, I've journeyed from early coding experiments to SOTA innovations in the field of Gen-AI and Pred-AI. At Misrai, I'm currently dedicated to developing a base model prototype for an intelligent, efficient, and compact AI model. This project encapsulates my vision of making AI more accessible and impactful in various industries."

However, it's the development of Ogler Eyescan that she calls her proudest achievement so far. "It's a testament to my commitment to creating tools that define how we interact with technology," says the teenager who loves reading and watching films.

[caption id="attachment_38058" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Leena Rafeeq with her sister Hana[/caption]

She is glad to have found a strong support system in her parents who are also her inspiration. "They have been encouraging throughout my journey, providing me with fresh concepts and business initiatives I might pursue."

AI is the future

As a young software developer, she believes programming and coding are the fundamental building blocks defining the future. "People will likely begin conversing with machines and progress to artificial intelligence. To live an inviting lifestyle and thrive in the upcoming years, it's crucial to know how to code and program because robots may replace many jobs."

Follow Leena Rafeeq on LinkedIn