Finalists, Mentors and Judges

Today’s Innovators

Get to know the diverse personalities of students, 3M Mentors, and others who have contributed their unique talents to the 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Use the tabs below to explore exciting ideas and inspirations from previous years’ challenges.

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  • 2022
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WinnersFinalistsState Merit WinnersHonorable MentionImproving LivesMentorsJudges
2022 State Merit Winner

Aishwarya Agrawal

Vesque Method - A Watering Method to Save Water

Globally, agriculture uses 70 percent of freshwater. My goal was to help reduce the amount of water that plants need, while ensuring that the plant is still healthy. I found a method of watering that can reduce the amount of water a plant needs by 50 percent by decreasing the time that pores are open.

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2022 Finalist

Asvini Thivakaran

Piezoelectric Power Generation from Automotive Tires

Global warming, climate change, and air pollution are some of the most prevalent global issues of today. Asnavi developed the Piezoelectric Power Generation from Automotive Tires

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2022 Honorable Mention

Austin Ewing

The Automated Car Garden

Austin developed The Automated Car Garden

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2022 Finalist

Daniel Thomas

A Novel Dosing Pump to Prevent Clogs and Organic Overgrowth In AC Condensate Lines

Daniel developed a Novel Dosing Pump to Prevent Clogs and Organic Overgrowth In AC Condensate Lines

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2022 Honorable Mention

Delisha Manuel

Piezoelectric Roads

Delisha developed Piezoelectric Roads

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2022 Finalist

Harini Venkatesh

The Comptometrist: An Efficient Way to Determine Myopic Power

Harini developed The Comptometrist, a prototype designed to cut down the time needed to determine myopic power in a patient’s eyes.

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2022 Honorable Mention

Isha Joshi

Tracking Parkinson’s Symptoms and Stages with HandPD Dataset in a Mobile App

Isha developed Tracking Parkinson’s Symptoms and Stages with HandPD Dataset in a Mobile App

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2022 Finalist

John Lee

A Novel MoS2 Electrode for Enhancing Electrochemical Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen (H2) can improve energy consumption by producing an alternative energy source to carbon-based fuels.

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2022 Winner

Leanne Fan

Finsen Headphones: Treating Mid-Ear Infections Using Machine Learning and Phototherapy

Leanne developed the Finsen Headphones: Treating Mid-Ear Infections Using Machine Learning and Phototherapy

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2022 Honorable Mention

Pratyush Sathish Kumar

Low carbon mat comprises packaging waste materials

Pratyush developed a concept for Low carbon mat comprises packaging waste materials

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2022 Finalist

Sahasra Swargam

Soil Fungi Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Fights Climate Change using Artificial Intelligence and IOT

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas responsible for rising global temperatures and abrupt climate changes which threaten food production and ecological systems.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Sahit Jayaweera

VertiMoss

Air pollution is a huge problem in city areas, especially in low-income areas. While trees are useful, they are too costly and require too much maintenance. My solution was to create a vertical moss panel that could be used in a city setting to reduce air pollution and sequester carbon while being low cost and low maintenance.

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2022 Finalist

Samaira Mehta

OVision - The Automatic Assessment of Ovarian Cancer Features & Mesothelin Protein Overexpression from Histopathological Images using Deep Learning

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive organs. 65% of ovarian cancer patients die each year in the United States alone. The best way to reduce that number is for doctors to develop a treatment plan that is specific to the patient and their condition.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Salamat Ibrahim

Eco-Solution: The Earthly Journey into Improving Earth's Water Sources

The situation that I will be addressing is trying to improve the environment for both animals, plants, and humans from a toxic element known as chlorine, (Cl) This chemical element has been used to act as bleach to kill harmful bacteria in drinking water.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Sanjay Iyer

Detecting Microplastics in Tea Bags Using Nile Red Dye

As of 2020, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the United States; every day, 50% of the population drinks 2.16 billion cups of tea. Though the consumption of tea presents numerous health benefits, it also introduces the topic of microplastics entering and harming the human body.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Sara DeVolld

Illuminations

Illuminations are wearable, fashion-forward LED garments and jewelry used to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder in the long, dark winter months of northern communities.

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2022 Finalist

Shanza Sami

Pura Aerem: Leveraging Catalytic Converters for Enhanced Filtering Efficacy

Shanza developed a five-stage prototype with a diffuse filtration system, carbon nanotube (CNT) screening, electrolysis chamber, hydrogen fuel cells, and photoelectrochemical oxidation (PECO) technology.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Shriyadita De

Empowering Communities to Monitor Local Watersheds for Rapid Response

I have created a cheap stream water monitoring device using an open source “Arduino” electronics board to measure the turbidity, temperature, and pH of the water, and hope to send the data that is collected from the sensors into a server so everyone can access it via a webpage or a phone app.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Silas Erwin

PERCEY (Personal Emotional Robot for Connecting and Educating Youth)

PERCEY is a companion robot that can teach kids coding and STEM but also contains a cellular hotspot so low-income families can get access to the internet and every kid can get telehealth counseling. Also, PERCEY uses deep neural networks and integrated telehealth to help you in times of need.

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2022 Finalist

Amritha Praveen

ASD Screener - Early Risk Assessment of Autism Spectrum disorder using Machine Learning

Autism is one of the most common developmental disabilities that impact social and communication skills. While there is no cure, intensive early intervention can make a big difference in the quality of life for many children

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2022 State Merit Winner

Asa Limmer

Prion Scanner

My new innovation would be to create a scanner with a programmed chip that would learn how to recogize PrP^Sc found in deer or elk in that area. As the scanner looks through the lymph nodes, obex, or tonsils, it will be going through the programmed information and if it notices the slightest trace of PrP^Sc it will mean that likely the deer has CWD.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Catherine Manley

Creating a Healthier Human Society

The Aquabot is my invention that uses thermoelectricity to condense clean drinking water out of the air without using a filtration system for people in need of clean water. It is self-sustainable and has very few parts so it will not break down easily. It is powered only by renewable resources and releases no byproducts. The Aquabot is portable and cheap to make it as accessible as possible for the people in need.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Henry Martin

Mood Melodies

Seeing as there is an especially heightened amount of stress with the ongoing pandemic and other global issues, I wanted to help people manage their anxiety. This led me to create a website that can help a user cope with negative emotions via music. The site feeds data from the user’s webcam into a neural network to analyze the user’s face and determine their emotion.

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2022 State Merit Winner

Elizabeth Gill

A Dog’s Advanced Prosthetic Leg

This project is about an advanced prosthetic leg for canines that have lost one or more of their legs and need to fulfill their daily lives to their best ability.

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