Thursday, August 09, 2012

17-Year Old’s Neural Network That Can Detect Breast Cancer Wins Top Prize at Google Science Fair

In this year’s Google Science Fair, a 17-year old whiz girl won the top prize for her cloud-based neural network that can accurately detect breast cancer.  Brittany Wenger designed artificial neural networks that assess tissue samples for signs of breast cancer.  Artificial neural networks are essentially computer programs “coded to think like a brain”, she explained.  The difference is that it can detect complicated patterns that are too complex for humans.  The neural network is said to be 99.1 percent sensitive to malignancy.  Very clever and impressive for a 17-year old. She deserves the $50,000 in scholarship money, an internship with a fair sponsor and a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands as her grand prize for the said Science Fair.

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