Indian American teen wins Young Scientist Award for inventing AI treatment for cancer

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A 13-year-old Indian American boy from Oregon has won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge along with a $25,000 prize, for inventing an artificial intelligence (AI) treatment for pancreatic cancer.

According to an Inside Edition report, Rishab Jain has created an algorithm to improve cancer treatment by using AI to locate and track the pancreas in real time.

According to the organizers of the competition, Jain’s algorithm improves the accuracy and increases the impact of radiation treatment.

During regular radiation treatment, many healthy cells are affected and damaged as doctors look for the pancreas, which is often hidden by the stomach or other organs, according to a Time report.

Jain’s algorithm reverses that.

According to a Time report, 3M mentor scientist Dr. Döne Demirgöz said that Jain’s algorithm could work with a hospitals’ existing radiotherapy equipment, or can just be incorporated directly into new machines.

Jain is currently in touch with doctors at local Oregon as well as big-name national hospitals, so they can work together to execute his idea, the Time report added.

Jain told Time that he will use his money to advance his machine learning project and fund the Samyak Science Society, a nonprofit that he created to promote STEM learning and raise pancreatic cancer awareness.

He started his project last year when he learned that pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths.

In the past, Jain has also designed a toilet flushing system that uses fresh and recycled water to conserve water consumption, as well as invented an app that improves the accuracy of an archer, according to an Inside Edition report.

The nine other finalists will receive $1,000 each along with prizes from Discovery Education and 3M.