11-Year-Old Myra Saxena Wins National Awards for AI Diabetes Research

Saxena, a seventh-grader at Ellen Fletcher Middle School in Palo Alto, California, is the only middle school student from the Palo Alto Unified School District to win the Isabelle Stone Grand Prize at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship. She also took first place in a category and earned a special award from the Association for Computing Machinery for her work combining artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Her research, which focuses on early detection and prevention of pediatric Type 2 diabetes using low-cost blood biomarkers and wearable technology, earned third place in the Medicine and Physiology category at the California Science and Engineering Fair. A paper based on her work, 'A Novel Approach for Early Detection of Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes using Low-cost Blood Biomarkers,' has been accepted for presentation at the 2026 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference.

Saxena began coding at age 8 and as a fifth-grader developed 'Healthy Littles powered by SmartGenes,' an app and wearable device project. That project advanced to the Invention Convention U.S. Nationals, where she placed second, and earned first place in the World Series of Innovation Challenge.

Her motivation is personal: she lost her grandfather to diabetes. Saxena also runs Sparklez, a nonprofit she founded in 2021 to support children in underserved communities in the U.S. and India, and she is a TEDxYouth speaker and competitive ballet dancer.

Her advice to other young people: 'Never give up, even if people tell you that you can’t do it or you’re too young. It’s never too late or too early to start.'