Hi.
What about you?
Let's talk about you.
First of all, congratulations.
You're named the first kid.
And there's never been Kid of the Year.
So you're Kid of the Year and they invented it
because of you.
Thank you.
Yeah, it was definitely super surprising.
They actually called me out to New York to shoot.
But it ended up being naming me Kid
of the Year, which is so crazy.
And obviously a huge thank you to Time and Nickelodeon
for really featuring amazing kids
from just around the world, who are doing fantastic things.
And I'm super excited to be one of the faces of Gen Z.
Wow.
Well, you're 15 years old, you're a scientist.
How did that happen?
When did you start being interested in science?
Right.
So it was--
I think it's almost for as long as I can remember.
I've always loved experimenting, coming up with ideas,
but it's always been intuitive for me.
So when I was four, my uncle got me this science kit,
and I can probably tell you that that's not what I
wanted for my fourth birthday.
But it was super fun and I played with it
every single day.
And it slowly turned into the use of science and technology
to solve problems in society, which
is what I do every single day.
I use science for kindness.
I know, and because you created something really cool.
We'll talk about it in a minute.
But you have life-changing inventions
that I want to talk about.
First one, you were inspired by the Flint water crisis, which
is, I mean, we all have watched that and been devastated by it.
But you came up with something.
Tell us about that.
Yeah.
So about three to four years ago I heard about the water crisis
in Flint, Michigan, just watching the news
with our family like we do every night.
And it was just so appalling to see how many kids my age
were essentially drinking a poison every single day.
And it seemed so unfair because water is a basic right
that everyone should have.
And I never looked back since then.
I think the concept of water, that I took for granted,
will never be taken for granted.
So I created a device called Tethys,
which helps to detect lead in drinking water faster and more
inexpensive than the current tools.
And it uses something called carbon nanotube sensor
technology, and it gives you these values and resistance
values that can then be sent to your phone.
And shown on an app, which displays
the values of safe, slightly contaminated, or critical.
So anyone can read it out.
I see people's mouths just open.
Everyone's jaw is just dropping.
You're 15.
We're looking at it like, oh, that's horrible,
and yet you create something like this.
Then you created a new app called Kindly.
And tell everybody what that does.
Yeah.
So let's see.
For about the past 10 years that I've been in school,
I've actually moved to seven different schools, which
has obviously been tough on me.
And I never felt at home until high school, in fact.
So every new place, there was always insults that got
shot around.
I was isolated.
Something or the other happened.
And the whole concept was imagine if this
happened at a bigger scale.
Imagine how many people would be impacted.
So my whole goal was to create a safer
way of communication for students, teenagers, adults
everywhere.
So that's exactly what Kindly is.
So Kindly is a global service that's
able to detect and prevent cyberbullying.
And it's based on developments in artificial intelligence,
machine learning, natural language understanding
and processing.
And what that means is it's built on this continuously
evolving service.
So it's able to adapt to the latest memes, emojis,
and slang, and essentially pick it up as you go.
And along with this, it's not intended to be punitive.
So what that means is each bullying scenario is turned
into a learning experience.
So if someone were to say, hey, I hate you,
it would-- not directly to you, obviously--
but it would tell you this pop-up
that says Kindly says to be aware of what you're saying.
It doesn't necessarily go directly to a punishment stage.
Wow.
Well, we need that all over the planet today.
I mean, that's amazing, what you created,
because there are a lot of people who-- because it's
really easy to hide behind that when you're on a keyboard.
There's a lot of bullying that happens that way.
That's incredible.
All right.
So there's something you really wanted to do on our show today.
Tell everybody what it is.
Wait, really?
Yes.
So I have been obsessed with the What's in the Box segment.
So wait, are you serious?
Yeah, because you think you're going to be
able to guess the correct box.
Everyone looks--
Yeah.
Everyone plays at home.
I'm almost positive.
OK.
Well, then let's play What's in the Box?
Yeah, let's play.
What's in the Box?
All right.
What box do you think?
You're going to go for one, two or three.
OK.
See, three looks promising because it's small.
But one is also pretty.
I like two.
No.
Yes, I like--
Two is big.
I like two.
Yeah, let's go with two.
Two.
That's my final answer.
See, everybody at home is saying one, no two,
and everybody thinks they know.
All right.
I know you spent a lot of time submitting for scholarships
and grants for your projects, and Shutterfly
loves helping people tell their inspiring stories like yours.
So let's see what you have won under number two.
$10,000!
Thank you.
You picked the right box.
Really?
Yeah!
Yeah, because one and two was just $4, so that's great.
All right.
So nice meeting you.
Come back any time.
You're awesome, and can't wait to see what's next for you.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
All right.
We'll be right back.