Brainiac vs. Brain Cancer: Teen Tackles Deadly Disease

Warning: Reading about this teenage whiz kid could hurt your ego. Teenager Kavya Kopparapu has accomplished more than most of us ordinary mortals. Before entering her senior year of high school, she’d invented an AI-powered tool to prevent blindness in diabetics. She’d co-created a mobile app to let EMTs securely pull medical information from unconscious patients’ smartphones. And she’d founded a nonprofit to support girls in technology. But that was just kids’ stuff for the 17 year old. Now the Washington, D.C.-area teen is using GPU-accelerated deep learning to fight the deadliest form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. The fast-growing cancer is best known for who it’s afflicted — U.S. Senator John McCain is battling it now — and the lives it’s claimed, including U.S. Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy and Beau Biden, son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.