Middle-Schooler Receives Top Prize at Junior Innovators Challenge For a Fire Detection Device That Works Faster Than Average Smoke Detector

A student received the top award in a junior innovators challenge for designing her fire detection device. According to a report, her design works faster than the average smoke detector.

Student Wins Awards For Fire Detection Device

Shanya Gill, 12, won the top prize at the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. She received $25,000 after beating thousands of middle schoolers for the challenge.

Initially, 65,000 middle school students participated in regional competitions. According to Maya Ajmera, president & CEO of the Society for Science, an organizing partner of the competition, roughly 2,000 of the approximately 6,000 nominees for the national competition go through with the application process.

The pools are reduced to 30 elite finalists after multiple rounds of judging, who then proceed to the national science fair. Gill and the other finalists who forwarded in the competition placed among the top .04% of all competitors.

The 30 finalists were evaluated based on two things - the projects themselves and a set of unexpected tasks that they had to perform in teams of two. Per Ajmera, Gill demonstrated leadership, teamwork, grace, and critical thinking abilities during the challenges and throughout the tournament.

Gill said she would use the money to market her detector and that any extra would be donated to organizations that assist those impacted by the fire. The youngster said that the purpose of her project was to help those whose houses were destroyed by fire.

Ajmera considered Gill's device a "brilliant project." She also added that considering the middle schooler's leadership and collaboration skills, they are excited to watch her journey in the following decades.

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Gill's Fire Detector

Two essential parts of Gill's gadget are a Raspberry Pi, a tiny single-board computer, and a thermal camera.

According to Gill, she used Python to code the Raspberry Pi, and it receives photos from the thermal camera for analysis. The device's sole function is to identify an unattended fire and notify you via text.

The computer distinguishes between thermal signals that are traveling vertically, like smoke rising, and those that are moving horizontally, like an animal or person.

"She's got a really interesting device. I mean, it detects fires earlier than smoke detectors," Ajmera said of Gill's fire detector.

Gill came up with the idea of developing a fire detector after a fire incident last year. Her family was shocked after hearing that a restaurant behind their house was burned to the ground.

According to Gill, the fire moved them as they had never experienced it before. The incident prompted her to design a fire-detection device to help them identify fires faster than an average smoke detector. It will notify the users of an impending fire by sending a text.

Following the success, Gill plans to take the gadget to the market so others can use it. She stressed that helping those who suffered losses from the fire was the goal of her device.