At 14, Sirish Subash won an important award for his “Pestiscand” which detects pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables

Sirish Subash won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2024 thanks to the portable device he created: based on AI, it detects pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables

Sirish Subasha 14-year-old junior at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Snellville, Georgia, won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2024 with his innovative invention: Pestiscand.

This AI-powered handheld device is capable of detect pesticide residues on fruits and vegetableshelping consumers verify the safety of their food. Pestiscand represents a breakthrough in the field of food safety, allowing people to easily detect traces of pesticides with an accuracy of over 85%.

Sirish conceived Pestiscand to address the problem of chemical residues on agricultural products. The device works through the spectrophotometry: Measures how light of different wavelengths reflects off the surface of produce, such as spinach and tomatoes, and uses a machine learning model to analyze this data. The technology thus allows the presence of pesticides to be identified quickly, precisely and non-destructively.

He won $25,000 which he will invest towards his future college expenses

Thanks to his invention, Sirish he competed against nine other young finalists in the challenge organized by 3M and Discovery Education. Over the summer, the finalists worked with industry experts to perfect your projects.

Sirish was mentored by Aditya Banerji, Senior Research Engineer at 3M, who guided him in bringing Pestiscand from a conceptual idea to a functional prototype. The competition, culminating in a final event in St. Paul, Minnesota, tested participants on ingenuity, innovation, application of STEM and presentation skills.

In addition to the title of “America’s Best Young Scientist,” Sirish won an award of $25,000who declared he wanted to invest in his future university expenses. The young scientist dreams of attend MIT and continues with the desire to improve its device and continue to create technological solutions to address environmental challenges, including climate change.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge, now in its seventeenth year, is a unique opportunity for middle school students to present innovative ideas that can solve real-world problems. Many young people have come out of here they have started nonprofits, obtained patents, and been featured in major national media outlets. A competition that therefore continues to encourage new generations to pursue scientific discoveries that can improve everyone’s lives and contribute to a safer and more sustainable future.