Summer Series #4: Deeya and the art of invention

Deeya says she was upset to discover that people in San Jose in California had not received warnings to move away from risky areas before the floodwaters struck in 2017. It wasn't right and, even though she was only 12, she was determined to do something about it.

One day, she was out walking her dog when she noticed that, if you looked closely, there were lots of little cameras dotted around the town, near traffic lights. They are there so that the police can check on any problems.

But Deeya realised that the images the cameras captured could also have other uses. She discovered that everything these cameras in San Jose were filming was available to anyone free on the Internet. Deeya figured that she could get computers to recognise when the cameras were showing flood water in the streets and then alert people to the danger.

She invented a system called Flood Finder. It uses "artificial intelligence" to analyse pictures from the traffic cameras.

"What we do is image segmentation," Deeya told WoW! News. "It takes an image and divides it into different parts. If you took an image of someone’s room, the camera and the machine learning algorithm would be able to detect which area is a bed, what would be a desk, what would be a chair.

"By looking at how much of an image is covered by a flood we can also determine the height of the water."

Deeya in 3 questions:

What kind of kid were you?

"I was always a little bit of a builder and trying to come up with creative solutions. One day me and my friends wanted to go go-karting but we didn’t have any go-karts. So I took a spare skateboard and (child) booster seats from my garage and held them together with a piece of rope and then we push it down a hill and just went go-karting that way."

Who inspires you?

"One person that has definitely inspired me is Greta Thunberg. As a young activist, she has faced countless challenges in trying to change the world but nevertheless she still persists and makes a tremendous impact on society. One thing I’ve learned from her is that age doesn’t matter when you’re trying to make a difference, it only matters what your passion is and your desire to make a change."

Do you have a tip for kids?

"First, reach out to people. It’s something I’ve learned through Flood Finder is that I don’t know the answers to everything and that’s perfectly fine. By reaching out to people, I can hear different perspectives, maybe see an issue in a new light, maybe try to do something different. That’s really valuable. Second, you don’t need to make a huge change in order to be an innovator. It can be something as simple as making my go-kart and that’s equally valuable."