Time Magazine’s First Girl of the Year is called Gitanjali Rao and is only 15 years old | Premium



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You 1927 a Time distinguished for the first time the Man of the Year, he subsequently adjusted the tone of this honor to recognize “the Person of the Year”. This year there is something new. Gitanjali Rao is the cover of the magazine Time who decided that this teenager deserved the first title “Girl of the Year”. At just 15 years old, the Denver, Colorado, USA-born scientist used new technologies to invent various devices, including equipment that can detect contaminants such as lead in drinking water. But this girl did more.

Gitanjali Rao’s Wikipedia page was edited this Friday and already includes a reference to the magazine’s title Time. But there are other distinctions there. The North American inventor won, for example, the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 at just 12 years old and was also awarded for his achievements in the magazine’s Top 30 Forbes. In addition to the technology he created to detect contaminated drinking water, the scientist also developed an application that uses artificial intelligence to detect cyber bullying. Gitanjali Rao’s grand plan is to inspire people to “solve the world’s problems”.

The 15-year-old was chosen from 5,000 US candidates between the ages of eight and 16 in a list that was narrowed down to five finalists. The magazine announced the award Thursday, citing precisely this “girl” ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems – and her desire to motivate other children to take on their causes.

News from the newspaper The Guardian on the cover of the magazine Time recalls that, in an interview with actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, Gitanjali Rao acknowledged that he is far from the typical image of a scientist who, he said, is generally “a man, older and normally white”. But precisely for this reason, the young woman wants to inspire others to follow in her footsteps. “If I can do it, you can do it, and anyone can do it,” he told the magazine Time.

There are more details on the Wikipedia page with your name. Gitanjali Rao is known to attend the STEM School Highlands Ranch, who said she would like to study genetics and epidemiology and also recalls that she is a young woman fighting for other causes such as cyberbulling. On your Twitter page – which at the end of this morning still had no reference to the distinction of Time mentioning only the fact that she is one of the finalists – there is a reflection of her battles and also an idea of ​​the intense activity of this teenager promoting a series of laboratories on innovation among many other projects.

Interest in contaminated drinking water, for example, would have arisen when he was watching the news about a public health crisis in the city of Flint, Michigan, in 2014. More than concerned, Gitanjali Rao worked to find a solution. So he created a carbon nanotube sensor-based device called Tethys (which includes the technology Bluetooth, a processor and a nine-volt battery) that can detect and report lead levels in drinking water. In 2017 he won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and received $ 25,000 for his invention.

The following year she was awarded the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Youth Environmental Award. The Tethys project has won other awards and the young scientist hopes to present a prototype that can be commercialized very soon.

Another of his health interests is related to the development of tools for the early detection of opiate addiction. But there’s more: Gitanjali Rao wanted to help with another problem as well and created a tool that can be used on the phone or the web and which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible signs of cyber bullying. “Write a word or phrase and, if it is, you are able to catch it bullyingand it gives you the option to edit or send it as it is, ”the young woman explains to the magazine Time. “The goal is not to punish. As a teenager, I know that teenagers tend to attack sometimes. On the contrary, it gives them the opportunity to rethink what they are saying so that they know what to do next time. “Finally, he says he will also have a gift for music. In addition to everything he has done and does, Gitanjali Rao he also plays the piano.

It is expected that within a week Time announces who deserves the Person of the Year title, which last year was awarded to another teenager: 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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