Shanya Gill, a 12-year-old from California, dazzled the audience by winning the $25,000 top prize in the first-ever Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge with ease. Shanya used a thermal camera and a small computer to create an inventive fire-detection system that was inspired by an actual event. The system is designed to distinguish between heat sources and people; if it detects a heat source for an extended length of time without any people around, it will send out an SMS alert. This is more than just a win; it's evidence of the inventiveness and promise of our next generation. "The top winners... have shown boundless curiosity," says Society for Science President and CEO Maya Ajmera. Indeed, Shanya exemplifies this interest, bringing her idea to reality with a system that obtained a remarkable 98% accuracy rate for heat sources and 97% accuracy rate for human presence. This competition ignites the future by planting seeds of promise in the brains of the next generation through visionaries like Shanya. She's only one of the countless winners, one idea at a time, transforming the world by solving problems.
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