Gitanjali Rao is 14 years old and is a 9th grader. Gitanjali was most recently included in Marvel's Hero project that spotlights extraordinary and inspiring young people who make us want to do better and be better to make a difference in the world that will air in March 2020.
Gitanjali is working on a solution for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction and is also implementing an anti-cyberbullying service based on AI/Machine Learning in the community called "KINDLY" under the guidance of Microsoft.
She was previously named America’s Top Young Scientist of 2017 by the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, with a patent pending device to detect lead in water faster than any other current techniques.
Gitanjali has open-sourced her lead detector invention processor, her colorimetry based algorithm for prescription opioid detection and app code for the community and it has been used for other applications.
She is an active STEM promoter and is involved in promoting STEM based activities in schools, clubs and the community. She was selected as the National STEM Scout of the Year. She runs innovation sessions weekly and have impacted about 20,000 elementary, middle and high school students by either running innovation sessions or being a speaker.
Gitanjali is on the board of Directors for an organization called Children’s Kindness Network that spreads an anti-bullying message, and promotes the importance of kindness in all of us. She conducts workshops in elementary schools and hopes to educate children about kindness when they are still young.
She is a 4 time TEDx speaker apart from speaking in several girls' and global conference and being a UNICEF panelist about the role of Youth to power the planet.
Gitanjali aspires to study genetics and computer science. She hopes to keep writing, discovering, and sharing her knowledge in the future.
