Girl, 13, wins $15,000 after inventing moisture-sensing bandage that tells doctors when it needs to be changed


  • Changing bandages too often can prevent large wounds from healing 
  • Anushka Maiknaware, 13, is a 7th grade student in Portland, Oregon
  • She invented a bandage with tiny monitors that can sense moisture 
  • It then alerts doctors when the bandage needs to be changed
  • The teen won $15,000 from Google and a year of mentoring from Lego

Associated Press

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Most 13-year-old girls are just started to get to grips with pre-algebra. 

But Anushka Maiknaware has raised the bar. 

The Oregon teenager has invented a bandage that can tell doctors when it needs to be changed, impressing Google judges and securing a $15,000 scholarship. 

Large wounds must be kept moist to promote healing, but changing bandages too often to check moisture levels can make things worse. 

To solve that problem, Anushka, a seventh-grader at Stoller Middle School in Portland, designed and tested a bandage that is embedded with tiny monitors. 

Groundbreaking: Anushka Naiknaware pictured at home in Beaverton, Oregon, testing a bandage that can tell medical workers when it’s time for the dressing to be changed

The monitors can sense moisture levels and allow medical workers to determine whether the dressing has dried out enough that the bandage needs to be changed.  

Anuskha created the sensors by printing a fractal pattern using ink containing graphene nanoparticles. 

The particles can accurately detect when moisture levels have dropped.

Google judges named her one of 16 global finalists, all of whom traveled to the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, to present their project. 

Anushka was the youngest person to win one of the global prizes.

Winning the Lego Education Builder Award, Anuska gets a scholarship and a free trip to Lego world headquarters in Denmark.

Aside from her Denmark trip, the middle schooler will also get a year of entrepreneurship mentoring from a Lego executive, reported the
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