Odisha Student’s Disease-Detection Machine Selected For Centre’s Youth AI Program

Jagatsinghpur: A keen understanding of the socio-economic problems in rural areas has driven a 15-year-old girl in the district to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine to screen diseases and cut down mortality.

The project by Abhilipsa Bhol, a Class X student of Government High School at Allipingal, has been selected for Phase 2 of the Responsible AI for Youth program.

The program is jointly organized by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Intel.

Abhilipsa is among eight Odisha students whose projects made it to the best 100 at national level competition, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported.

“It is a national programme for all government schools of the country in which Abhilipsa was selected among the best 100. In Phase 2, the selected students will be imparted training and their ideas converted into working prototypes. Then top 30 will be selected,” said Padaraj Umakant Nayak, Abhilipsa’s mentor and science teacher.

How It Works

Explaining about the project, Abhilipsa said it envisages an ATM-type kiosk which can self-detect diseases and send a patient to the right doctor.

The teen innovator said the AI kiosk will store details of diseases, symptoms, date and locations of all doctors. It can interact in multiple languages and have global position system too.

“The government can install such self-detection machines in remote villages. All that a person has to do is key in his/her symptoms into the machine,” she said.

“If a person is uneducated and cannot write, he/she can tap the speaker and say out loud the symptoms. The machine will read the information, detect the disease and then direct the patient to the hospital and doctors too,” she added.

Inspiration

The Class X student, , who aspires to be a scientist, said villagers living in remote areas are afflicted by many diseases, but have little awareness due to lack of information and illiteracy.

“I was shocked by death of so many people due to lack of awareness about diseases and access to doctors. That is why I highlighted the problem of common man and suggested installing self-detection machine in remote areas. Besides, detection of diseases, the machine will also prescribe doctors for treatment. This process would check mortality,” she said.

Praiseworthy

Earlier, Abhilipsa was selected for Inspire Award by the the Central government’s Department of Science and Technology for a prototype of an automatic dish washing machine with the help of her science teacher.

Abhilipsa’s father Bansidhar Bhol is an LIC agent who fully supports her daughter’s dreams of becoming a scientist.