Finalists, Mentors and Judges
The 2026 3M Young Scientist Challenge State Merit Winners have been announced! Use the tabs below to check out their big ideas and explore all finalists, winners, and 3M Scientist mentors!
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.
2026 Wisconsin State Merit Winner
Aarav Malinowski
Sensor-Powered Smoke Detector Add-On
2026 Indiana State Merit Winner
Aarsh Sahu
Smart Traffic Light Using Pixel Based Background Subtraction
2026 Michigan State Merit Winner
Adhrit Mishra
CocoScrub
2026 Minnesota State Merit Winner
Agastya Pande
AquaAlert: A Low Cost Colorimetric Lead Detection System
2026 Pennsylvania State Merit Winner
Ahana Paul
nYOUroGlove: A smart piano-integrated robotic therapy to improve bimanual coordination and dexterity
2026 Arizona State Merit Winner
Akshay Lakshminarasimhan
Self-supervised ML Modelling for Latent state representation of Geomagnetic Structure and visualizing as iOS App
2026 Oregon State Merit Winner
Albert Liu
Powering Life-Critical Sensors for Decades: The PNP Cell, A Photon-Based Nuclear Prototype Battery with Optional Radiation Detection
2026 South Carolina State Merit Winner
Amita Barik
The Sentinel - A novel passive NIR system for non-invasive drug detection in school security checkpoints.
2026 Tennessee State Merit Winner
Anisha Nachnani
The MIRAGE system (Microplastic Identification, Removal and Adaptive Green Engine)
2026 Florida State Merit Winner
Arshiya Ghosh
HELIOS (Heat-stress Environmental & Lymphatic Interactive Operational System)
2026 Connecticut State Merit Winner
Cayden Joseph
BiteSight: Development of a Deep Learning Mobile Application for Bug Bite Identification
2026 Ohio State Merit Winner
Harshith Nelabhotla
Real-Time ASL Word Recognition System
2026 Virginia State Merit Winner
Ishanvi Sakharpe
Dolphin Guard
2026 Hawaii State Merit Winner
James Beecroft
SeedRover
2026 Washington State Merit Winner
Kapish Arora
Savior: A Multimodal Voice and Sensor Based Walking Companion
2026 Maryland State Merit Winner
Krish Janoria
A.R.E.S. - Automotive Risk Evaluation Safety System
2026 California State Merit Winner
Kyle Xu
GaitFusion
2026 Illinois State Merit Winner
Kyrha Shah
IDeal Security
2026 Iowa State Merit Winner
Leen Idrees
Neuronova
2026 Kentucky State Merit Winner
Liam Baldwin
Safelink
2026 New Jersey State Merit Winner
Nithya Tammana
BioLayer
2026 North Carolina State Merit Winner
Prakhar Purohit
Tiny Batteries from Dirty Water
2026 West Virginia State Merit Winner
Preethi Nethi
How Plants Electrically Communicate
2026 Delaware State Merit Winner