Innovative Minds: Laasya Acharya

Mason Middle School | 7th grade | 12 years old

An Approach to Detect Fruit Disease using Images

About the Idea

Meet Laasya. Laasya developed a solution that will allow farmers to easily and effectively detect diseased and unhealthy crops to reduce food waste and loss during the harvesting phase.

Why did you enter the 3M Young Scientist Challenge?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to help people. I enjoy solving problems. I believe that science is an obvious way to solve multiple problems we are facing or predicting the problems we are going to face.

What is your favorite invention of the last 100 years, and why?

My favorite invention is the space shuttle. I believe going to space is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and I look forward to humanity venturing out into our solar system in the future. The Space Shuttle made space travel easier and was a major contributor for the International Space Station - the first human establishment in space! When I was younger, my family and I went to Cape Canaveral, Florida, which sparked my love of space. Because of this, I became interested in learning as much as I could about space. This passion for space then led to my passion for science as well.

In 15 years I hope to be...

continuing to innovate and change the world through science by working for NASA as an astrophysicist, helping to discover and solve the mysteries of space through machine learning!