{"id":23155,"date":"2021-03-02T14:44:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T22:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/?p=23155"},"modified":"2023-08-06T13:06:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T20:06:30","slug":"women-in-stem-gitanjali-rao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tynker.com\/blog\/women-in-stem-gitanjali-rao\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in STEM: Gitanjali Rao\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Women in STEM: Gitanjali Rao<\/strong>
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In case you missed it, Time Magazine named 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao its Kid of the Year <\/em>for 2020. She\u2019s an amazing girl from Colorado who\u2019s already making a difference in this world and a great choice to be featured in Tynker\u2019s Women in STEM series for the month of March.
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Time<\/a> honored Gitanjali for \u201cusing technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying.\u201d In her Time interview, Gitanjali talked about her process:
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\u201cObserve, brainstorm, research, build and communicate.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
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Contaminated Drinking Water<\/strong>
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Gitanjali first gained recognition back in 2017 when she was just eleven by taking action to help solve the water crisis<\/a> in Flint, Michigan. Finding current methods of recognizing lead in water slow and unreliable, Gitanjali sought to make an inexpensive and portable lead-detecting device. She told ABC News:
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“I was appalled by the number of people affected by lead contamination in water.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After reading about new technologies that can detect hazardous substances on MIT’s Materials Science and Engineering website<\/a>, she developed a way to use carbon nanotubes to send water quality information via Bluetooth. She calls her device Tethys, named after the Greek goddess of fresh water.
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Education<\/strong>
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Gitanjali attends a public charter school called STEM School Highlands Ranch. The campus has three engineering labs, four computer labs, and a chemistry lab. In college, she plans to study cell biology, genetic engineering, and computational genomics.
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This month, her new book<\/a>, A Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM: 5 Steps To Problem Solving For Students, Educators, and Parents<\/em>, is being released. It proposes to identify problems and develop solutions by building on the latest developments in science and taking an alternate path to innovation.
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What She\u2019s Up To Now<\/strong>
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Lately, Gitanjali has been working on developing<\/a> a phone and web tool called Kindly<\/a>, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible cyberbullying. She started by hard-coding words that could be used in bullying but emphasized that the idea is not to punish but to educate and make kids feel safe:
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\u201cYou type in a word or phrase, and it\u2019s able to pick it up if it\u2019s bullying, and it gives you the option to edit it or send it the way it is.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
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She\u2019s also begun running \u201cinnovation workshops,\u201d to inspire her fellow students to get involved in finding solutions to other problems by presenting lesson plans, labs, and contests. She also gives Ted Talks<\/a> on topics like A Young Scientist’s Guide to Problem Solving and Innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, she\u2019s working on finding a way for people in third-world countries to identify bio-contaminants<\/a> like parasites in their water. Gitanjali is also interested in genetics, working to help to diagnose prescription-\u00adopioid addiction at an early stage based on protein production of the mu opioid receptor gene. 
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She\u2019s also<\/a> managed to become an accomplished pianist while finding time to work toward obtaining her pilot\u2019s license.
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Going Forward<\/strong>
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Making a positive impact on people and the planet, Gitanjali is a great example of the kind of determination and leadership that Tynker loves and a true inspiration to her generation of girls who are thinking about a career in STEM-related fields.
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\u201cWe just need to find that one thing we\u2019re passionate about and solve it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t wait to see what Gitanjali does next!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 GET STARTED FOR FREE<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women in STEM: Gitanjali Rao In case you missed it, Time Magazine named 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao its Kid of the Year for 2020. She\u2019s an amazing girl from Colorado who\u2019s already making a difference in this world and a great choice to be featured in Tynker\u2019s Women in STEM series for the month of March. Time honored Gitanjali for \u201cusing technology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,38,50,7,106],"tags":[92,112],"class_list":["post-23155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-block-coding","category-coding-stories","category-girls-coding","category-tynker","category-women-in-stem","tag-stem","tag-women-in-stem"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen in STEM: Gitanjali Rao\ufeff - Tynker Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore the achievements of Gitanjali Rao, a young prodigy in STEM. 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