14-year-old Sirish Subash wins ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ title
Invents ‘Pestiscand’, a pesticide detector
Georgia (USA) – Sirish Subash, a 9thgrade student from Snellville in Georgia won America’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge for his handheld device called ‘Pestiscand’, which detects pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables.14-year-old Sirish was awarded the prestigious title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ and a cash prize of USD 25,000.
Like most inventors, Sirish too was bothered by a problem. His mother used to insist that he washes fruits before eating. It made him wonder whether this preventive measure was actually effective. He researched on the matter and found out that washing only removes some of the impurities on the fruits and vegetables. 70% of all produce continues to have residual pesticides. These are carcinogenic by nature and can lead to other ailments such as Alzheimer. Hence, he invented a handheld device which detects pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables.
Sirish wishes to continue the research until his invention can be sold for USD 20 or less in the market. He wants to become an engineer from the prestigious ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’ (MIT).
Research process followed by Sirish
1. Sirish has used spectrophotometry in his Pestiscand device. It involves the analysis of light waves reflected from the pesticides present on the surface of fruits and vegetables.
2. As a part of his research, Sirish tested more than 12,000 samples of apples, spinach, strawberries and tomatoes. Different pesticides absorb and reflect light of different wavelengths.
3. ‘Pestiscand’ can find the specific wavelength reflected by a particular pesticide.
4. ‘Pestiscand’ uses an AI based learning model to analyse the wavelengths reflected by the different pesticides present on the surface of the fruits or vegetables. At present, Sirish has already managed to achieve more than 85% accuracy rate.