BUDDING INNOVATOR / SINDHOORA RAJA
Sindhoora Raja, a sixteen-year-old innovator and research enthusiast from Bengaluru, was awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar in New Delhi recently. She received the award for innovation from the President of India, Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
She also had the opportunity to meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi where he interacted with the winners. During their interaction, she explained her innovations in neurotechnology, and the Prime Minister encouraged her to continue her research. She recalls that receiving the Rashtriya Bal Puraskar was a moment of disbelief but also an immense honour, motivating her to work even harder towards her goal of making therapies accessible to all, particularly in rural India.
She was awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2024 in the category of innovation for her work on cost-effective, self-stabilising, and therapeutic devices for Parkinson’s patients. Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition affecting 10 million people worldwide, currently has treatments such as deep brain stimulation and pharmacotherapy that are often unaffordable for many. Sindhoora has developed a vibrotactile device that applies vibrations to the fingers of patients with Parkinson’s disease. These vibrations stimulate neurological pathways associated with Parkinson’s, reducing motor impairments including tremors and symptoms of freezing of gait. Sindhoora aims to help rural communities in India through her devices. This device offers cost-effective relief to patients. She is working towards bringing this project to the market as a startup in partnership with the Ministry of Education.
A native of Ullal, Mangalore, she shifted to Bengaluru early in her childhood; she completed her 10th grade at New Horizon Public School before joining National Public School, Indiranagar, in Bengaluru.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sindhoora, like many others, found herself spending more time at home. She used this time productively, exploring the internet and reading research papers. Fascinated by the potential of technology to address major medical issues, she often went down rabbit holes online to understand the ‘why’ behind various phenomena. Her interest in biomedical engineering, quantum chemistry, and biochemistry grew, enabling her to acquire knowledge well beyond her years.
One of her first projects, inspired by the pandemic, was the development of an artificial intelligence model to diagnose pneumonia from chest X-rays. This early experience made her appreciate the importance of interdisciplinary research and the potential impact of technology on medicine, particularly in India.
In the 9th grade, she was introduced to entrepreneurship through New Horizon Educational Institutions, where she joined their incubation centre and later filed a patent, which has since been published. Sindhoora frequently visited her school’s Atal Tinkering Lab, staying late on weekends and during the summer. Her dedication led to her being named a World Science Scholar in 2023 for her achievements in mathematics and science. As part of this programme, she participated in courses and received mentorship from renowned figures such as Nobel laureates, Breakthrough Prize winners, and distinguished scientists like Dr John Mather, Dr Cumrun Vafa, and Dr Brian Greene. She also had the opportunity to attend the World Science Festival in New York in 2024, where she interacted with fellow scholars.
Sindhoora furthered her research by collaborating with Johns Hopkins University and Wolfram Research on a project focused on a pathogenic yeast responsible for causing 200,000 deaths globally. Her work earned her the grand award at the IRIS National Fair 2024 in New Delhi, and she has been selected to represent India at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, to be held in Columbus, Ohio, in May 2025. Additionally, she received a $3,200 sponsorship to represent India at the FAB24 conference, hosted by MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms and the FAB Foundation, in Puebla, Mexico. There, she presented her work to a global community of makers and researchers and conducted workshops for students, earning recognition from the governor of Puebla.
Sindhoora presented her work on brain age prediction at the Future Port Youth Conference and was awarded a 2,000 euro grant by the Future Port Youth organisation based in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2023. Her work involved a novel approach to the prediction of an individual’s brain age based on structural and cerebrovascular features. The brain age can be compared to an individual’s chronological age to predict their risk of dementia. One of the neurologists in the panel, notably remarked: ‘If she is fifteen, I will return my diploma’. Adding on to this, she provisionally discovered a near-Earth asteroid in collaboration with NASA and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration. The asteroid is now mapped by the minor planet centre under the name: ‘2023 OG15’.
She has won the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Ignited Mind Award 2024 conferred by SRISTI and the HoneyBee Network for her neuroscience research. She has also been selected among the Top 100 teams of the ATL Marathon 2022-23 and as part of that, interned with DELL Technologies. She has also worked under the mentorship of the CSIR-4th Paradigm Institute in Bengaluru and attended a programme at IISER Bhopal.
Sindhoora draws inspiration from Dr Stephen Wolfram’s writings on computational systems such as cellular automata, and she is an avid reader of Elliot Hershberg’s The Century of Biology, a thought-provoking blog about emerging fields in life sciences. In addition to her research, Sindhoora is an accomplished artist, having won numerous national awards for her climate change-themed artwork. She is also a black belt in Karate.
Looking ahead, Sindhoora plans to continue her research in interdisciplinary fields and hopes to venture into the startup sector, with the broader aim of addressing medical challenges. She states that she stands on the shoulder of giants and could not have achieved anything without the support of her family and mentors who have significantly guided her.
