IlmFeed
Yasir Salman and his family from Karachi, Pakistan, were chosen from more than 7000 participants and 200 entrants to attend the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Family Challenge in Silicon Valley, USA, and were selected as the winners of the junior ‘Technology Award’ for their invention – Cavity Crusher.
(Yasir’s Submission Video)
The AI Family Challenge is a free, hands-on AI education program that “brings families, schools, communities, and technology know-it-alls together to give everyone the chance to learn, play and create with AI.” The programme encourages families to think of a problem in their community (whether around transportation, health, education, safety, or the environment) and to create a solution for it using AI technology. The programme also offers families support from both online and local coaches.
Judges from around the world evaluate submissions and six families are selected to share their ideas with a panel of expert judges in Silicon Valley. This year judges included Jeff Dean, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Unit at Google.
Team Cavity Crusher is one of the finalists from Pakistan for Global AI Championship, Curiosity Machine and we are excited to present our work at INTEL tomorrow. Had a great experience at Stanford and Facebook for practice pitch.@curious_machine @IridescentLA @pakscienceclub pic.twitter.com/i0Wp2q5tGT
— Sana Mahmood (@Sana_PSC) May 18, 2019
(Sana Mahmood – Family Coach from Pakistan Science Club)
Yasir said he thought of the idea for Cavity Crusher when he came across research online that tooth decay in children is a global problem. After further research, he discovered that this is because many children do not brush their teeth for the recommended two minutes twice per day. With the support of his family and coach, he developed a toothbrush stand that could monitor how long children were brushing their teeth for, which would then send messages via Bluetooth to parents’ phones. The device can also monitor if, and how much, toothpaste is used. Yasir hopes his invention will help children develop positive life-long habits.
The Technology Award in the Junior Division was awarded to The Mayet Family, Pakistan, for “Cavity Crusher” whose algorithm uses #AI to monitor a child’s brush time and determine their oral health habits to notify parents accordingly. 2/ pic.twitter.com/aUn5Tax2h2
— Iridescent (AI World Championship) (@IridescentLA) May 23, 2019
(Left: Salman – father, centre: Yasir, right: Fareeha – mother)
Yasir’s parents couldn’t be prouder of their son’s invention. “I could not believe when our idea was chosen since amazing ideas from across the globe were presented for the contest,” said Fareeha.
“Yasir’s idea was appreciated because it was a child resolving children’s issues.”
Not only is Yasir inventing and innovating, but he has also memorised the entire Quran at just 10-years-old, which shows just how capable children are of excelling when given the opportunity. Something that his mother knows very well.
“Our children do not lack abilities, but we need platforms like these to nurture their capabilities.”
May Allah give Yasir and his family the best in this world and the next.
