The Davidson Institute for Talent Development last month announced its 2017 Davidson Fellows, with six Indian American teens among the 20-person list.

The Davidson Fellows program seeks to recognize young people who have developed significant projects that have great potential to benefit society. This year’s Davidson Fellows exemplify the extraordinary work that can be accomplished by gifted young students who are given opportunities to excel, according to a news release.

A total of $415,000 in scholarships were doled out to the 20 teens, with Indian American Rishab Gargeya among the two Davidson Fellow Laureates named. For winning a top award, the 18-year-old Gargeya was awarded a $50,000 scholarship.

“I am honored to be a Davidson Fellow Laureate,” said Gargeya in a statement. “This accolade further validates the work that I have done for the last few years and motivates me to continue innovating in the future.”

Scholarships of $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 were awarded for projects in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature, music and philosophy.

“We are thrilled to recognize the 2017 Davidson Fellows not only for their incredible projects, but also for the journey they forged to reach this point,” said Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute. “Every year I am amazed by the depth of the Fellows’ accomplishments. Through encouragement and recognition, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development anticipates that gifted students like these will be among the pioneers who will solve the world’s most vexing problems.”

Many of the Fellows’ projects are inspired by personal experiences that drive them to find a solution to a problem, and each Fellow is driven to use their passion and intelligence to make the world a better place, the institute said.

Gargeya, an incoming freshman at Stanford University, created a smartphone app that uses artificial intelligence to detect basic eye-care issues, circumventing clinicians and saving users costly medical bills, according to the Davidson news release.

This app can help people diagnose themselves in seconds so they can accurately monitor their own vision and get medical attention accordingly, it said.

Receiving $25,000 scholarships were Indian Americans Arjun Ramani, Manan Shah and Arvind Sridhar.

Ramani, 18, of West Lafayette, Ind., was chosen for his project, “Fast Sampling of Stochastic Kronecker Graphs.” Shah, 17, of Los Altos, Calif., was selected for his project, “Deep Learning Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Histopathological Images for Categorical and Molecular Breast Cancer Severity Diagnosis.” And 18-year-old Sridhar of Sunnyvale, Calif., was selected for the project titled, “Engineering Injectable, Conductive Hydrogels Doped with Graphene and Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles for Post-MI Cardiac Tissue Engineering and Robust Drug Discovery: A Computationally-Aided Investigation for Enhancing Therapeutic Efficacy.”

Nishita Sinha and Pranav Sivakumar were among the teens who were awarded with a $10,000 scholarship.

Sinha, 18, of Chatham, N.J., was chosen as a scholar recipient for her project, “Experimental Studies in Developing Safe Sanitation Solutions.” Sivakumar, 17, of Tower Lakes, Ill., was chosen for his project, “Searches for Almost Dark Galaxies in Blank Sky Fields with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.”

Since its inception, the institute has awarded more than $7.1 million over 17 years through the Davidson Fellows scholarships, recognizing more than 300 of the nation’s best and brightest young students, it said.

The 2017 Davidson Fellows Award Ceremony will be held Sept. 27 in Washington, D.C.

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