Community Updates: April 2024
Our global community of youth here at Youth STEM 2030 are tackling the world’s biggest challenges through science, technology, engineering and maths, creating a real impact across all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Here’s how some of them have been changing the world lately…
Rutendo Participates in Health Hackathon
Rutendo Kahari took part in a health hackathon run by Entrepreneurship at Cornell and Cornell Wiell Medicine, alongside over 150 brilliant minds - including doctors, developers, scientists, and engineers - who converged to explore the potential of AI in patient safety, leading up to Patient Safety Awareness Week.
Rutendo’s team directed their efforts toward revolutionising radiology, specifically focusing on colorectal cancer screening. Her team proposed a novel approach that integrates machine learning with virtual colonoscopy to identify polyps as small as 6mm. Recognising the significance of early detection, their system could potentially redefine preventive care standards, which would be ground-breaking for colorectal cancer patients!
We are in awe of Rutendo, and their teammates, on this impressive work for SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing!
Aminta Makes the WOW Foundation Young Leaders Directory
Aminta Permpoonwiwat, a Youth STEM Matters Team Alumni, has been listed as one of the WOW Foundation’s Young Leaders 2023, in recognition of her extensive work in sustainability advocacy, ranging from founding and leading the Youth Mentorship Project to winning the Human Rights Youth Challenge.
The WOW Foundation exists to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is desirable, possible and urgently required, and so recognition of her work from this organisation is a huge - and very well earned - achievement. We were thrilled to connect WOW Foundation with Aminta, and can’t wait to see what inspiring work she will undertake next!
Namya Wins Wonderful Outstanding Women Award
Namya Joshi, who spoke about her impactful work at our 2021 Youth STEM Summit, has had her contributions to teaching and developing workshops in coding, as well as empowering young people to start coding clubs, recognised with a Wonderful Outstanding Women Award. This award is another in a long list of recognitions and achievements, and it is so well deserved! Congratulations Namya!
Nahian Delivers a TEDEd Talk
Nahian Khan, a member of our Youth STEM Changemakers: Entrepreneurs for Impact programme, has recently delivered an incredible TEDEd talk on bioethics; a topic he is passionate about and hugely knowledgeable on. TedEd talks serve to amplify student voices and give bright young people a platform to share their ideas. Huge congratulations Nahian on an engaging and inspiring talk!
Prashant Awarded a Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers Fellowship
Prashant Mohesh, who featured in our COP26 video, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship with Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF), and will be embarking on an exciting adventure to produce a short documentary film while also highlighting underrepresented voices in the African Landscape. NEWF is an organisation doing powerful work on removing the barriers to entry and build capacity in order to enable access, support inclusion, expand local audiences and foster a culture of equity for African nature, environment and wildlife visual storytellers.
We are thrilled for Prashant and so excited to see the documentary film which he will be working on through this fellowship!
Macdonald Expands Everlasting Technology
Macdonald Chirara is opening a new showroom hub and office in Harare for his company, Everlasting Technology, which provides sustainable energy solutions for off-grid rural households in Africa. The company is pivotal for empowering communities, promoting economic growth and improving livelihoods through affordable renewable energy resources.
This expansion is a huge triumph for Macdonald and the Everlasting Technology team, as it will allow them to reach a wider audience and continue to make powerful change in their community! Congratulations Everlasting Technology!
Bupe Selected for 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship
Bupe Chikumbi has been selected as a prestigious fellow by the Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship program of the U.S. Government’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). This fellowship means Bupe will travel to USA for six weeks, where she will delve into business strategies to scale the impactful work she is doing at her social enterprise, Genius Education Zambia, which exists to facilitate, enhance and promote quality emerging STEM education by empowering the Zambian education system.
This is a fantastic opportunity that Bupe has been working towards for years (having first applied to the fellowship in 2019!), and it is wonderful to see her hard work rewarded. Well done Bupe!
Diana’s Xatoms selected for Compute for Climate Fellowship
Xatoms, founded by 2020 Youth STEM Summit speaker Diana Virgovicova, has been selected for the Compute for Climate fellowship. As one of only four companies selected, this is an enormous accomplishment, and as a result, Xatoms will receive up to $200,000 in tech and mentorship support. Xatoms utilizes AI and quantum chemistry to accurately predict 3D models of photocatalytic structures, aiding in cleaning polluted waters across the globe, and so this funding will be instrumental in tackling issues surrounding access to clean drinking water.
This is an incredible and thoroughly deserved opportunity - well done Diana and Xatoms!
Have a project, achievement or update that you want to feature in future Youth STEM 2030 Community Updates? Email the details to Mhairi McCann: mhairi@youthstem2030.org
