Jack Andraka has big summer plans, and we don't mean at the beach. Photograph courtesy of Andraka.
Almost as soon as Jack Andraka, a sophomore at Glen Burnie’s North County High School, won the top prize at last year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, he’d decided on his next project. Not satisfied with winning $100,000 for developing a five-cent paper strip that stands a chance of becoming the world’s best—and cheapest—test for pancreatic cancer, Andraka set his sights on something bigger: Qualcomm’s $10-million Tricorder X-Prize.
After reading about the international competition to bring the tricorder—Star Trek’s legendary piece of medical technology—to life, Andraka gathered four friends he’d made at the Intel fair to pursue the prize. “I just thought it would be cool to have a team of all high-school students,” he says.
All they have to do to win is create a wireless, handheld device capable of monitoring a patient’s vital signs and diagnosing 15 diseases ranging from sleep apnea to atrial fibrillation.
Andraka, 16, and his partners hope by the end of the year to develop a working prototype that can be used to diagnose most of the diseases and to have a refined product by the time the contest closes in 2015. So far, all their communication has been via Skype, but they plan to spend the summer working together at either Harvard or MIT.
For his portion of the project, Andraka is working on a handheld MRI machine and a sugar-cube-size device that will measure the concentration of various proteins in the bloodstream and, with the help of proprietary software, diagnose diseases based on what it finds.
Although the researchers are young, they’re not without resources. All have access to labs—Andraka himself spends about 25 hours a week working at DC’s Naval Research Laboratory. With that sort of time commitment, it may be no surprise that he’s never seen an episode of the show that inspired the project. Says Andraka: “I mostly don’t watch TV.”
This article appears in the May 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Local High School Student Aims to Make “Star Trek” Gadget a Reality
He may not have a driver’s license, but he has an international patent.
Almost as soon as Jack Andraka, a sophomore at Glen Burnie’s North County High School, won the top prize at last year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, he’d decided on his next project. Not satisfied with winning $100,000 for developing a five-cent paper strip that stands a chance of becoming the world’s best—and cheapest—test for pancreatic cancer, Andraka set his sights on something bigger: Qualcomm’s $10-million Tricorder X-Prize.
After reading about the international competition to bring the tricorder—Star Trek’s legendary piece of medical technology—to life, Andraka gathered four friends he’d made at the Intel fair to pursue the prize. “I just thought it would be cool to have a team of all high-school students,” he says.
All they have to do to win is create a wireless, handheld device capable of monitoring a patient’s vital signs and diagnosing 15 diseases ranging from sleep apnea to atrial fibrillation.
Andraka, 16, and his partners hope by the end of the year to develop a working prototype that can be used to diagnose most of the diseases and to have a refined product by the time the contest closes in 2015. So far, all their communication has been via Skype, but they plan to spend the summer working together at either Harvard or MIT.
For his portion of the project, Andraka is working on a handheld MRI machine and a sugar-cube-size device that will measure the concentration of various proteins in the bloodstream and, with the help of proprietary software, diagnose diseases based on what it finds.
Although the researchers are young, they’re not without resources. All have access to labs—Andraka himself spends about 25 hours a week working at DC’s Naval Research Laboratory. With that sort of time commitment, it may be no surprise that he’s never seen an episode of the show that inspired the project. Says Andraka: “I mostly don’t watch TV.”
This article appears in the May 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.
Most Popular in News & Politics
What It Felt Like for a Virginia Marching Band to Win Metallica’s Contest
Meet the 2023 Washingtonians of the Year
What’s IN and OUT in DC Restaurant Trends for 2024
Introducing 8 of DC’s Most Stylish
Washingtonian Magazine
May 2024: Great Getaways
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
13 Major Concerts and Music Festivals in the DC Area This Spring
Mary Timony on Her Emotional New Album, “Untame the Tiger”
The Beatles in DC: A New Exhibit in Maryland Looks Back on Early Beatlemania
Northern Virginia High School Wins Metallica’s Marching Band Competition
More from News & Politics
Former Fiola GM Convicted of Murder Is Now in a Netflix Docuseries
These 5 DC Traffic Cams Are Issuing the Most Tickets Right Now
Farewell to Crystal City Underground, the DC Area’s Strangest Mall
Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2024
Inside the Urgent Effort to Preserve Black Newspapers
Maryland Has Renamed an Invasive Fish. Will It Matter?
Meet the 2024 Washington Women in Journalism Award Winners
In the Doghouse: Kristi Noem and 5 Other Canine Political Scandals