News: 17-year-old builds program to detect breast cancer
Updated: Jul. 25, 2012
First prize at this year’s Google Science Fair went to Brittany Wegner, 17, for her cloud-based neural network’an artificial "brain"
First prize at this year’s Google Science Fair went to Brittany Wegner, 17, for her cloud-based neural network’an artificial "brain" that is able to asses tissue samples for breast cancer.
The artificial "brain", which is essentially a computer program that mimics brain waves, is reportedly 99.1 percent sensitive to malignancy, and could replace a procedure called Fine Needle Aspirate as the least invasive form of biopsy.
Wegner told msnbc.com that she is aiming to deploy her program in hospitals and wants to tweak it so it’s able identify other types of cancer as well.
As the grand prize winner at the Google Science Fair Wegner has won $50,000 in scholarship money, an internship and a 10-day trip to the Galapagos islands.
Image courtesy Google
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