Meet Praadhyumn Indaana, 17, whose AI model won him $50,000

A better understanding of how much heat a nuclear reactor can safely handle could have implications far beyond a single engineering calculation. For 17-year-old Praadhyumn Indaana of Montvale, New Jersey, that challenge became the focus of an eight-month research project combining physics and artificial intelligence. According to the Davidson Institute, which named Indaana a 2026 Davidson Fellow, his physics-guided neural network reduced the average prediction error for critical heat flux from about 63% with conventional formulas to 5.5%. The work earned him a $50,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship and recognition for a project aimed at improving predictions of an important nuclear-reactor operating limit.Why heat matters inside a nuclear reactorIn a nuclear reactor, water plays a critical role in removing heat from fuel rods. As the water boils against the fuel rods, it carries heat away.