Achieving one of the world’s greatest science titles at age 15, the story of Gitanjali Rao
She was all over after Times Magazine featured her in 2020 as a kid prodigy doing amazing things. At the time, she was just 15 but had invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water.
She had gained the title: ‘Kid of the Year’ in Time Magazine for the first time ever.
The Time recognition was just another after Rao had been featured a year before, in 2019, on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
The Indian-American intellect invented a device that can identify lead in drinking water and an app that detects cyberbullying.
Rao was among a list of more than 5,000 nominees.
In an interview with activist Angelina Jolie for a TIME special, the now 17-year-old mentioned that her biggest dream was to always put a smile on the face of someone and that dream began to take form in second or third grade when she started thinking of using creative ways through science and technology to create 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?'” she said.
And that was it for the lead detector device.
For the cyberbullying app, Rao revealed in the said interview that the service called Kindly uses an app and a Chrome extension which is able to detect cyberbullying at an early stage based on artificial intelligence technology.
“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,” she further noted.
Rao hopes to inspire people like her with colour to do outstanding things in the world. According to her, the perception that people had assigned roles depending on their gender, age, colour of skin was one she almost believed growing up, particularly because all she saw on TV was “an older, usually white man as a scientist”.
Her words, “If I can do it, anybody can do it” is what she left with youngsters like herself, with the hopes that it draws enough motivation to change the world.
