A student of Highlands Ranch School, a STEM school in Colorado, Rao has set an example for young scientists and has become an inspiration to them. A 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who uses artificial intelligence to create apps to combat contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, drug addiction, and other social problems. He was honored with the title of "Kid of the Year 2020" in Time magazine.
Time magazine had asked for nominations for Kid of the Year for the first time. For this, about 5 thousand nominees were selected, out of which Gitanjali secured the first position and appeared on the cover page of Time magazine.
Gitanjali has won this award in the world of science and technology by beating thousands of children on the basis of her brilliant research. Gitanjali has been given this award for the best use of technology in the field of contaminated drinking water and cyberbullying. Gitanjali recently won America's Top Young Scientist Award.
Geetanjali Rao, a resident of Colorado, USA, is a scientist who studies genetics and epidemiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 and was also recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 for her innovation. In September 2018, Geetanjali Rao was awarded the President's Environmental Youth Award by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Gitanjali has been honored with many awards including EPA Presidential Award, George Stephenson Innovation Award 2020, Kumon 2019 Student Inspirational Award, and TCS Ignite Innovation Top Health Pillar Award.
In 2017, at the age of just 11, Geetanjali won the award for being America's 'Top Young Scientist' by the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for developing a method to detect lead pollution in water. This discovery of Gitanjali is based on the contaminated water in the year 2014-2015 in Flint city of Michigan province of America.
Gitanjali named the mobile-like device 'Tethis'. After putting the device in water for just a few seconds, it tells the amount of lead in the water. She has been a Davidson Young Scholar since 2012 and has been the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards for achievements in the sciences, arts, and community service.
She is an active STEM promoter and promotes STEM-based activities in school, clubs, and the community. She holds weekly innovation sessions and has impacted over 30,000 elementary, middle, and high school students globally by sharing her process and tools. Rao was selected as the STEM Scout of the Year in 2016-2017 for her invention of venomous snake-bite detection and was selected as one of the 12 representatives to report to the nation in 2017-2018. To stop cyberbullying, Gitanjali created an app called Kindly.
It is an app and a chrome extension. Which has the ability to catch cyberbullying at the very beginning. A young scientist created a device named Epione to get rid of opioid addiction. Rao created a colorimetry-based app and device at the University of Colorado Denver's Department of Cell Biology, conducting research to find a solution to drug addiction using state-of-the-art genetic engineering.
The initiative was recognized with the Swasthya Pillar Award by the world adjudicators in Technovation Challenge and at the national level by the TCS Ignite Innovation Challenge.
Gitanjali was honored as a Junior Eureka Finalist by Shanghai Media Group, where she created the first intragenerational care solution using AI to understand the personality of the elderly and children and helped create employee engagement activities.
Geetanjali is on the board of directors of Children's Kindness Network, an organization that works to counter bullying messages and promote the importance of kindness to all. She is a 4-time TEDx speaker as well as a UNICEF panelist as a planet power of diverse girls and global conferences.
Gitanjali is associated with many rural schools, museums, and science technology engineering organizations with the aim of running innovation workshops for thousands of other children.
Gitanjali was selected as a partner by Forbes Ignite Network, where she piloted a concept called Empathy Shark Tank, which helps drive employee-employer engagement and employee development for start-ups and schools.
Gitanjali has won prizes for her writing at national and international level competitions. She published her first book at the age of 9, which was named, "Baby Brother Wonders". Rao won second prize in the PBS National Writing Competition for the self-illustrated book, in which Rao described the world through her younger brother's point of view.
Gitanjali won first place in the International Aviation Art Competition at the state level and her art was displayed at the Nashville International Airport. She was the kid reporter for the 2017-2018 school session of “Time for Kids”. In addition to writing and art, Gitanjali is part of the STEM Scouts and 4-H club.
Some of Gitanjali's hobbies include playing the piano, Indian classical dance, singing, swimming, fencing and cooking. She shares her talent of playing the piano at local aid centers and also organizes performances with volunteer groups. She has received several awards for her piano performances. Rao received the Nicholas Greene Distinguished Award and the Kohl's National Scholarship for his community service.
Gitanjali started using science and technology for social changes in the second and third grades itself. She saw that her generation was going through many problems, so she made it her mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve these problems. She believes that instead of solving all the problems, the youth should try to find a fun solution to a problem.
At the age of just 10, Gitanjali told her parents that she wanted to do research on carbon nanotube sensor technology in the Water Quality Research Lab. Sensor technology helps in detecting the contaminants present in the water.
Gitanjali's book on the process of renewal for student teachers and teachers will be released in 2021.
The world belongs to those who shape it. No matter how uncertain the world may feel at the moment, the only hopeful truth is that the new generation will produce more of what young scientists have already achieved. That are all positive effects.
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