NEHA SHUKLA
UNITED STATES, 16
Project: SixFeet Apart & Innovation Corner
Basic Human Needs: Education, Health, Safety, Water
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Neha saw millions of people becoming ill in her community and around the world. It didn’t seem right to her that a misunderstanding of social distance could cost someone their life. In March 2020, she created SixFeetApart – a wearable social-distancing device that uses microcontrollers and ultrasonic technology to alert users when approaching people cross CDC's guidelines of a 6-foot distance. As Neha began to work with experts to improve and implement SixFeetApart, she noticed a gap in innovation coming from her peers. She knew many teens who were passionate about problems, but they didn’t know how to channel their passion into a tangible solution. From there, Innovation Corner (IC) was born in the same month to support and inspire young innovators to leverage science and technology to solve global problems. IC leads workshops to connect youth and industry experts, share Neha’s 3-step innovation framework to create real-world solutions, and educate youth on emerging technology. IC has worked with 23,000+ students and industry leaders across the United States and worldwide. Neha’s work has been featured by the New York Times and featured on the Nasdaq screen in Times Square, NYC. In 2021 Neha anticipates reaching 50,000+ additional students while further developing her own innovations – which include a device to diagnose neurogenerative diseases and an AI based device to prevent mobility loss in the elderly. Neha will continue her journey as an innovator for life, tackling the world’s problems relating to health, climate change, cybersecurity and more.
Helping Girls Step Up to Entrepreneurship
As the school year ended and summer began, Page Curtin, a mother of three, was looking at a summer of canceled plans for her children. Her daughter M.G., 12, would not be going to sleep-away camp as planned. Then she heard through her husband’s employer about a program that aimed to teach girls financial, entrepreneurial and business skills in a five-week virtual program.