A Young Innovator's Guide to Stem: 5 Steps to Problem Solving for Students, Educators, and Parents

TIME Magazine’s 2020 “Kid of the Year”
Innovate and Create

Our generation is growing up in a time where we’re seeing problems that have never existed before. Older tools and technique don’t necessarily work anymore to solve such issues. We need a different approach that builds on the latest developments in science and takes an alternate path to innovation. Now more than ever, it’s time to come together to make a difference in society. But how exactly do we make that change?

Gitanjali Rao, innovator and America’s Top Young Scientist, brings to you an interactive experience to help immerse students in the process of innovation. Recognized by ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Marvel’s Hero Project, the accomplished author builds on her experiences and provides a prescriptive step-by-step process for identifying problems and developing solutions. A Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM strives to impact students, teachers, and educators to adapt to a new learning style—one that can have a positive impact on society.

What do you say? Let’s come together and create an innovation movement!

Gitanjali Rao is an inventor, aspiring scientist, author, speaker, and active worldwide promoter for STEM. She was recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and received a President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for her patented invention of a lead contamination detection tool. Gitanjali is also the inventor of Epione, a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction through genetic engineering, and Kindly, an anti-cyberbullying service that uses AI and Natural Language processing.

She was honored in Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and as TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and “Kid of the Year” for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over 75,000 students across six continents and forty-five countries in the last three years. 

In 2021, she was appointed a UNICEF Youth Advocate because of her work in using science to solve social problems such as cyberbullying and developing solutions for environmental protection. She recently received a Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for her selfless service for the Kakuma refugee camp students in Kenya.

She will be attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology starting in fall 2023.