Washington sources reported that an Indian-American teenager has been conferred with the 2019 National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education Award for her ground-breaking invention designed to improve treatments for glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer. Meanwhile the $10,000 award given by STEM Education US, recognizes Kavya Kopparapu, 19, of Herndon, Virginia, as an “extraordinarily talented and accomplished” individual “who has meaningfully promoted STEM education”.
Furthermore a freshman at Harvard University studying computer science and biology, the budding scientist has invented GlioVision, a precision medicine platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) that predicts brain tumor characteristics in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods by using a scanned image of a biopsy rather than a DNA sample. Reportedly it is a major step to targeted treatment for patients with cancer which uses a deep learning computer system to determine the molecular and genetic signature of a brain tumor with 100% accuracy.
Moreover Kavya has been recognized for her commendable efforts to battle a rare but deadly disease and to encourage others to pursue their expertise in STEM related fields. Apparently a social entrepreneur, Kavya is the founder and CEO of Girls Computing League, a non-profit organization which has risen over $100,000 for computer science programming that impacts more than 3,800 American students.