Dublin Student Named Thermo Fisher Finalist, Could Win $25K

DUBLIN, CA — Quarry Lake School student Yookta Pandit is among 30 finalists nationwide and five in the Bay Area for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, one of the most important middle school STEM competitions in the country. All finalists will receive $500 cash, as well as $1000 for STEM activities at their school.

Yookta may be eligible for as much as $25,000 in prize money as she presents her project “Reading the Brain: Using MRIs for Early Detection of Dyslexia.” Her project, which uses an AI model trained on MRI's to detect dyslexia, received the Middle School Engineering Grand Award at the Alameda County State Fair, the California State and Engineering Fair Nomination Award, and the Special Award from the STEM4ALL Organization, in addition to the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge Nomination Award.

"Existing dyslexia methods wait until reading struggles appear in children, by which point self-doubt begins to set in, as children start to believe that they are less intelligent than their friends," she said. "This emotional impact can carry through the rest of their lives, so for my project, the goal was to develop a model that can detect dyslexia in children before their reading age."

Yookta's tool was able to detect dyslexia with an accuracy of 87.5% and precision of 90%, which is good enough to be used in clinical settings.

She will compete at Thermo Fisher JIC Finals Week from Oct. 24-29 in Washington, D.C. There, a team of judges will rate each project on the scientific research, and on participants’ communication, creativity and collaboration during team challenges. Prizes range from $2500 to the $25,000 Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND Award, which will go to the student “who demonstrates mastery of all STEM fields and exemplifies how research, innovation and teamwork come together to impact our everyday lives.”