America’s Top Young Scientist
Ninth grader Leanne Fan won the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge for inventing headphones that can treat ear infections.
Discovery Education, 3M Young Scientist Challenge. 2022.
Leanne Fan won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge for inventing headphones that can detect and treat ear infections.
Leanne Fan, a 9th grader at Westview High School in San Diego, California, is America’s Top Young Scientist. Fan earned the title, along with a $25,000 prize, for winning the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Fan invented headphones that can detect and treat ear infections.
Fan’s headphones detect ear infections using machine learning, which means they’re programmed to “learn” as they gather data, or information. After sending a sound into the wearer’s ear canal, the headphones can detect an infection based on the echo of the sound. The headphones then treat the infection using blue light, which is known to kill bacteria. Finally, the headphones can transmit music as they treat an infection, so it’s pleasant to wear them. Fan named her invention Finsen Headphones, after Niels Finsen, a scientist who in 1895 invented phototherapy, which is the use of light to treat certain diseases.
Discovery Education, 3M Young Scientist Challenge. 2022.
Leanne Fan presents her invention, Finsen Headphones, at the 3M Young Scientist Challenge.
Fan came up with the idea for the headphones while trying to find a treatment for her mom’s ear infections. She later learned that 700 million people worldwide get ear infections each year, and most of them are children. Without treatment, an ear infection can cause complications. Fan estimates that her headphones could eventually prevent up to 60 percent of hearing loss in kids.
Leanne is still perfecting her invention. Next, she’ll test it on people and make changes based on the results. She encourages other young scientists to bring their ideas to life.
“I would say that if you have an idea, definitely go for it,” she said in an interview published on Medium.com.
