Teenager wins a $25,000 award for a solution to eliminate blind spots for cars @Society4Science

Via CNN, 14-year-old Alaina Gassler of West Grove, Pennsylvania has won a $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize for creating a prototype designed to eliminate a car’s blind spots.

“Congratulations to Alaina, whose project has the potential to decrease the number of automobile accidents by reducing blind spots,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public and Publisher of Science News. “With so many challenges in our world, Alaina and her fellow Broadcom MASTERS finalists make me optimistic. I am proud to lead an organization that is inspiring so many young people, especially girls, to continue to innovate.”

Gassler’s project uses a webcam, projector, 3D printed adapter and retroreflective fabric to make a car’s A-pillars (the A-pillar design in a car supports the windshield and provides protection in case of a crash) invisible by displaying the image of the blind spot behind them onto the pillar.

See the article here, the video below, and the prize announcement.