Photo: Discovery Education 2025
Southern California eighth grader Kevin Tang just won $25,000 and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist" for his FallGuard invention, a camera monitoring system programmed with an algorithm to identify falls and alert caregivers. Kevin’s grandmother fell at home about five years ago but no one noticed immediately, and she was left with permanent brain damage. Then his friend's grandfather, who had a watch with fall detection technology but had forgotten to charge it, fell and no one knew until the next day. That's when Kevin realized how common − and dangerous − falls can be. There are about 1 million fall-related hospitalizations each year among older adults. Once he became a finalist in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, Kevin worked to ensure the device could function at nighttime. It costs about $90 in materials to make one device, but he's trying to bring it down to $30 by using a different computer. At least one security camera company has shown interest, and many individuals have told him they want a device to keep their families safe.
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