Cupertino Teen Wins "Junior Nobel Prize"

CUPERTINO - A Cupertino teen was one of three top winners in a national science competition that encourages students to find technological solutions to scientific problems.

Maya Varma, 17, won a First Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation in this year's Intel Science Talent Search held in Washington, D.C., where winners were announced during a gala celebration Tuesday night.

Varma was awarded a $150,000 prize for creating a "smartphone-based lung function analyzer," to diagnose lung disease, according to Intel officials.

She spent $35 on hobbyist electronics and used free computer-aided design tools to create the device, which is just as accurate as those used in medical laboratories, Intel officials said.

Varma is a senior at Presentation High School, an all-girls private school in San Jose, which congratulated her Thursday through a post on its website.

The competition is so prestigious that it's known as the "Junior Nobel Prize," according to the school's online post.

Many past participants of the competition have won Nobel Prizes and National Medals of Science, Intel officials said.

For the first time in the competition's 75-year history, two of the three first place winners this year were female, Intel Foundation president Rosalind Hudnell said in a statement.

"This milestone is an inspiring sign of progress toward closing the gender gap in technology and engineering," Hudnell said.

There were 1,750 students who entered the competition and 300 selected as semifinalists.

The pool was narrowed down to 40 finalists from 18 states who went to nation's capitol where they were judged for their work, according to Intel officials.

-Bay City News, image via Presentation High School website