14-year-old Indian American builds system to predict driver fatigue, eyes $25k prize

Sharvi Mahajan, a 14-year-old Indian-American student from California, has been named among the 10 finalists of the 2026 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Mahajan has developed a system to predict driver fatigue before it leads to accidents.Sharvi, an eighth-grade student at Bernardo Heights Middle School, created NeuroDrive Alert, an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based machine learning system designed to monitor changes in brain activity over time, Young Scientist Lab reported. The system helps identify signs of fatigue early enough to warn drivers before they fall asleep.She is one of five Indian-American students to reach the final round of this year's competition. The other finalists of Indian origin are Aaisha Asif from Florida, Raji Doshi from Connecticut, Arika Kundu from Minnesota and Naboshree Santra from Florida.Brain signals predict fatigueSharvi's project combines two technologieswidely used in science and engineering. The first is electroencephalography (EEG), a method that records electrical activity produced by the brain.