>>Eric Berdinis: I am 20 years old, and I
am a student at University of Pennsylvania.
And before I talk about what I do, I guess
I will show you my video first just to give
you an overview and then I will explain more
about it.
(Video.)
>>Video: Hi, my name is Eric Berdinis.
Around the world there are 35 million people
who are blind and 245 million people who are
visually impaired.
Life can be tough, sometimes impossible, for
these individuals.
Seeing eye dogs and walking canes can be an
enormous improvement for being without any
aid, but I believe there is more that can
be done.
That's why my friend and I set out to create
a portable, wearable aid for the visually
impaired to help make their lives easier.
We created a waistband equipped with an infrared
camera and six vibration motors.
It works just like you'd expect.
If there is an obstacle to the user's left,
the left side of the waistband will vibrate.
As the obstacle gets closer, the vibrations
get stronger.
We have built a working prototype.
And as you can see in the video, as I move
from side to side, the buzzers respond accordingly
and the user reacts as if he can see where
he is going.
Our long-term goal is to make this device
more powerful by adding object recognition
and audio feedback.
However, our primary focus is to make it more
portable and affordable so we can spread this
technology around the world.
Thank you for your consideration.
[ Applause ]
>> Eric Berdinis: So I entered this video,
part of the Google Zeitgeist Young Minds program,
which finds ten people from the age 18 to
24 to come to Google Zeitgeist and talk about
how they are trying to change the world.
So, as you can see, the project I built was
a belt that works kind of like your backup
beeping system in a car works.
As you back up, the car beeps.
And you know when you are about to hit something.
But my friend, Jeff Kiskey and I -- He built
this with me.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Is he the other person
in the video?
>>Eric Berdinis: Yes, he was wearing the sweatshirt.
He and I decided, well, how can we take this
simple technology and use it in a way that
hasn't been done before?
It is part of a class we were at in UPenn.
We decided let's build this system that takes
a Microsoft Kinect, which is how we do the
camera and the sensing, find obstacles in
someone's path and vibrate on the belt to
let the person know when they are about to
hit something.
So we have gotten really far with this.
We look forward to seeing where this can go
in the future.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Terrific.
Shree, do you want to tell us a little bit
about your work?
>>Shree Bose: Sure.
I'm Shree Bose.
I'm 17 years old, and I do cancer research.
I was recently honored this summer as the
grand prize winner of the first-ever Google
Global Science Fair.
And so that is why I am here.
[ Applause ]
>>Shree Bose: So, just to tell you a little
bit about me.
I mean, the Google Science Fair is where I
am at right now.
But that's not at all where I begin.
My story begins with me as a second grader
trying to turn spinach blue because I didn't
like green vegetables.
[ Laughter ]
So my parents, being the wonderfully supportive
people they are, bought me this spinach plant,
bought me a syringe and some blue food coloring.
And I injected that plant with blue food coloring,
and then I put it in a cabinet and forgot
about it.
So the day of the fair, I pulled this plant
out of my cabinet and it's completely dead
because I haven't watered in weeks.
And I take that to school and that's my first-ever
science project.
[ Laughter ]
>>Shree Bose: So, granted, I have gotten a
bit more complicated from there, but when
I was 15 I decided I wanted to do cancer research.
And so I started emailing all of these professors
in my area and asking if I could work in their
labs.
So this is me as a 15-year-old emailing professors
at the highest graduate research level and
just asking to work in their labs.
And I got this long string of, if you didn't
expect this, I got "no's" from all of them
except for one with.
And she became my mentor.
I started doing ovarian cancer research, and
it has just been uphill since then.
>>Chelsea Clinton: That's great.
Scot?
>>Scot Frank: I'm feeling old and little bit
underaccomplished up here.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Hardly.
>>Scot Frank: This past Sunday I just turned
26.
I am the co-founder and CEO of One Earth Designs,
and we develop products that improve the lives
of people in emerging markets.
So to give you an example of some of this
work, the first issue I want to talk about
is energy, which, of course, is all over the
news.
But I think that there are a number of stories
that are still yet untold and those are stories
that are shared by about 2.5 billion people
around the world to are living in very smoky,
polluted environments like this that you see
here in the picture.
Now, I lived in one of these tents for about
three months.
But I think just at first glance, you can
see is, or maybe as it is, you can't see,
that there is a huge problem and that this
is a huge issue affecting millions of people.
2 million people die every single year because
of the smoke produced by the stove inside
of their home, and it is also the biggest
killer of children around the world.
And I first got involved in this issue about
five years ago when I was in western China.
And we were working with a number of communities
at the time on environmental education.
And they had a lot of interest in finding
solutions that would better meet their needs.
So there were a number of problems in addition
to the smoke.
Women would spend hours every day, young girls
couldn't go to school because they had to
spend the time collecting fuel.
And it is inaccessible, it's expensive and
it really causes a loss of opportunities.
So there were a few different options available,
and the idea of using the sun was something
that was particularly interesting to many
of the communities.
There was a lot of sun available, as there
is in many parts of the world where there
is a lot of energy poverty.
But the devices available to them were these
big, huge, concrete solar cookers that weighed
95 kilograms.
You couldn't get them out to the places where
people really needed.
>>Chelsea Clinton: And if they broke, you
couldn't repair them.
>>Scot Frank: Exactly.
And they usually did break in about three
months, so after which people would repurpose
them as a gate for their yaks.
[ Laughter ]
>>Chelsea Clinton: Enterprising but not the
problem you were trying to solve.
>>Scot Frank: Indeed, indeed.
So at least at one point, people were starting
to feel some ownership over the technology.
But people really wanted something that was
lightweight and portable.
So we looked around the world to find, well,
are there ways of using a sun that's lightweight
and portable?
We tried one of those technologies.
It is made from cardboard, and it takes several
hours to cook, if at all.
And on the next picture, you'll see that one
of the best pieces is the goat found it to
be a pretty desirable snack.
[ Laughter ]
>>Scot Frank: So I think this is a problem
that's illustrating something seen around
the world where you have a lot of technologies
in places where there is a lot of price sensitivity.
The people have usually very rigorous and
extreme needs for the technologies that just
simply don't meet their needs.
But, yet, these are products that are targeted
as something to lift people out of poverty.
People didn't feel good about using them.
And so we started to work with the communities
who had come to us in brainstorming different
ideas, and then we came up with a few different
prototypes.
We would test them, get feedback, find it
was too big, too heavy, too small.
And what we ended up with now coming up to
this month is a product that is lightweight
and portable.
It is the first one that can provide cooking
but also heating as well as generating electricity
from the waste heat.
And it is something that the users are really
excited about and it is a case where it really
is all about the users.
And it is a product they people are very excited
to use, and it makes them feel better about
who they are.
I think it satisfies the needs not only for
energy but also in providing them with something
that fulfills their heart, their mind and
their soul.
>>Chelsea Clinton: And gives them the dignity
of actually been able to be part of the design
process --
>>Scot Frank: Exactly.
>>Chelsea Clinton: -- which is often not the
case.
>>Scot Frank: Exactly.
So in one case -- Let's see.
Some of our prototypes, one of the most complicated
part was sewing.
So we made these prototypes in a workshop,
brought them out to communities.
And many of the women would say, Oh, did you
sew that?
We would say, Yes.
She said, I could do a much better job than
you.
>>Chelsea Clinton: She probably could.
>>Scot Frank: That's the kind of feedback
you want.
And, indeed, she could.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Eric, we've heard Scot
and Shree talk about some of the challenges
that they have had to overcome, whether it
was, I think, the six rejections until the
Talisman seventh yes or kind of being able
to accept that sewing was probably not where
Scot added value.
What were some of the obstacles that you confronted,
and how did you surmount them?
>>Eric Berdinis: Well, I have always found
myself to be a tinkerer, someone who likes
to build things.
So in a high school, for example, I built
a catapult for a class project.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Did you catapult yourself?
>>Eric Berdinis: No, we actually didn't.
So everyone came in.
All the different teams came in with these
one-foot high, two-foot high catapults.
But my partner and I, not wanting to be outdone
by anyone else, built a 8 1/2-foot catapult.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Overcompensated.
>>Eric Berdinis: Overcompensated, right.
We actually couldn't even transport it to
school without, like, buying --- or renting
a delivery truck and even then --
>>Chelsea Clinton: Were you old enough to
drive?
>>Eric Berdinis: No, my dad drive.
>>Chelsea Clinton: So life is a team sport.
>>Eric Berdinis: Right.
So it actually couldn't even fit inside the
school building.
We had to put it in its side.
It wouldn't work in the classroom, so we had
to do all the demonstrations outside.
Anyway, everyone's catapult threw their rock
or whatever a few feet.
And ours didn't throw it at all because it
broke and it didn't work.
Just going through this process and learning
that you can build something and have it fail
has taught me a lot about the whole design
process and the whole trying and starting
over.
So for my belt that helps blind people see,
at least for that project, you know, every
time there was something that could go wrong,
it would go wrong.
I believe it is Murphy's Law that it will.
And, of course, in the final hour when we
are about to present to our professor and
to everyone else at the school, one hour before
our presentation, it stopped working.
We had no idea why.
So we decided last-minute effort, let's jump
on the subway and go to GameStop and buy a
wire that Kinect uses to connect everything
and hopefully this will make everything work.
So we got on the subway, paid 30 bucks, came
back.
And, luckily, a few minutes before the presentation,
we just plugged it in and it worked.
So from those two experiences, I realized
that no matter how hard you try, there is
always going to be something that goes wrong.
Whether in the end you fail or in the end
you succeed, the process of building it and
going through everything teaches you what
it is like to build something on your own,
what it is like to actually finally reach
that end point of succeeding in your mission.
>>Chelsea Clinton: And it is an iterative
process.
Scot was talking about the ways in which he
has been able to enfranchise the communities
whom he is hoping to better empower over their
own lives.
How have you thought about kind of that same
paradigm in working with the visually impaired
as you further refine your prototype?
>>Eric Berdinis: Well, so, in creating this
belt, we realized that people who are blind
currently have no high-tech solution to navigating
the streets.
And when you are walking around, if you see
someone with a walking cane, you know immediately
that they have this disability, that they're
blind or that they are visually impaired.
So we aimed to create something that actually
filled this void of, first, having, you know,
technology help people in need; and, second,
using it to create something that makes it
more subtle.
Make it so someone who is walking that might
be wearing a belt, you wouldn't necessarily
know that they are blind.
You wouldn't know they are disadvantaged to
anyone else.
So in that way, we are trying to bring people
who are blind back to a level where they will
be seen as normal.
But at the same time, we realize that this
type of application or this type of project
could have many different uses.
So, for example, firefighters who are walking
through buildings with smoke, if they have
something like this, they can see obstacles
by feeling them.
>>Chelsea Clinton: They can give them a 360
view?
>>Eric Berdinis: Exactly.
Or miners can know when they are about to
run into something if it is dark or if it
is cloudy.
This type of seeing without really seeing
could really go a long way.
>>Chelsea Clinton: It is a much broader application.
>>Eric Berdinis: Right.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Shree, you talked about
sort of how you found your mentor.
Could you talk a little bit about how you've
worked with your mentor and kind of what you
think good mentorship is?
>>Shree Bose: Yeah.
So my professor was Dr. Basu, who is a graduate-level
scientist at the UNT Health Science Center
in Fort Worth where I live.
And she was the first person who said yes.
So I went into her lab and she said, Talk
to me a little bit.
Tell me what you want to do.
And when I first went into talk to her, we
just talked about where I wanted to go with
the research that I do.
And so I said I wanted to do science fairs
--
>>Chelsea Clinton: Did you know what research
you wanted to do already?
>>Shree Bose: I had an idea.
And then when I went to her she said it made
no sense.
[ Laughter ]
>>Chelsea Clinton: You have to start with
a hypothesis.
>>Shree Bose: Exactly.
So when I first went in, she said, you're
going to have to do background research.
So the library became my third home.
The lab became my second.
And my home was barely occupied.
So when I started doing background research,
I was put with a graduate student who was
supposed to guide me and make sure that I
didn't injure anybody or damage the lab in
any sort of permanent way.
And I just started working in the lab under
my designated supervisor.
And my mentor was there to always look at
my results, tell me whether my presentation
was good, and I could follow a coherent flow
or whether it made no sense and I could re-do
it.
So the research that I actually did that won
me the science fair was about ovarian cancer.
I actually have a slides of some results that
are pretty interesting.
I worked with drug resistance.
Basically, we were looking at cells that were
no longer responding to a chemotherapy drug.
And when patients become resistant to the
drug, they can get a recurrence of the tumor,
which is the biggest problem with chemotherapy
today.
And so we were looking at those resistant
cells, and we thought that this one protein
in the cell called AMP kinase had something
to do with those cancer skills becoming resistant
to the drug called cisplatin.
So to test that we basically stopped the activity
of the protein and then treated with the drug
and checked to see if there were any differences
in sensitive versus resistant.
And if we see differences, then that means
that this protein is doing something pretty
interesting in those cells.
And if we don't, well, that doesn't mean that
much but then you call it science.
So we were looking at sensitive cells, and
these are actually stained dying cells.
So if we see those little dots, that's each
one cell.
And so in our sensitive, we can see that when
we first treat with the drug, they're responding,
they're dying.
Then we add in this protein inhibitor and
they stop dying, which is kind of weird.
But then we went over to our resistant cells
and we were looking at the same treatment
except we saw the exact opposite thing happening
where those cell death counts are actually
going up when we inhibit that protein.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Which is what the greater
concentration in the bottom --
>>Shree Bose: Which is what that increase
means.
So that actually shows this huge shift in
what stopping that protein does in these cells.
So that means that this protein is doing something
in those cells to make them resistant.
And if we actually inhibit the protein when
patients become resistant and then treat with
the drug, we can actually treat them again
and improve chemotherapy.
So that was my work.
I was 16 when I was doing it.
And, honestly, I thought it was the coolest
thing ever, still do.
And now I get to go around and present it
to awesome audiences like you.
[ Laughter ]
>>Chelsea Clinton: And we get to learn from
you.
Are you still working in a lab?
>>Shree Bose: This summer I was actually all
over the place, so I didn't get to work in
the same lab.
But I'm hoping to do some more work in the
future with cellular biology.
And we'll see where that goes.
>>Shree Bose: Yes.
I mean, cisplatin is a drug, which is used
to treat all kinds of cancer.
So we used it in ovarian cancer, but that
doesn't mean this is the only cancer that
this happens in.
I mean, resistance is the biggest problem
with chemotherapy.
And, if we can translate it over to other
cancer treatments, then we can put what work
that we've done into clinical trials and treat
patients with what this research shows, which
is pretty very exciting.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Which is very exciting.
Scot, since you are a little older -- though
not as old as I am -- [ Laughter ]
>>Chelsea Clinton: -- have you already begun
to mentor people either at your organization
or through other organizations you're working
with in the field?
And how do you think about mentorship from
a slightly different vantage point?
>>Scot Frank: Yes.
I have started to mentor some, actually through
the Clinton Global Initiative University.
So for the past two years, I have been a mentor
to other university students who have applied
with their ideas mostly in social entrepreneurship
or energy.
And then it's been a real great learning experience
for me to hear what's going on in energy issues
at campuses.
And then I think it's interesting to see where
there can be exchanges between work I'm doing
or, you know, of people that I happen to meet
at conferences like this.
And I find it a really great opportunity to
give back.
And I think it's something that I've been
very fortunate to have found in my own experience
getting to this point.
>>Chelsea Clinton: That's great.
In our last few minutes, I think, I, at least,
would like to hear -- and I imagine the audience
would like to hear -- sort of what's next
for each of you in the lab or in the field
and how we can best help you do that, whether
that's write a letter of recommendation for
college or connect you to other mentors or
mentees.
>>Eric Berdinis: Well, I guess I'm going to
be continuing to work on my project.
And, like I said, the idea is to make it something
that's subtle, something that, when you wear
it, you don't necessarily know someone is
blind.
As you can see in the video, it's kind of
this clunky looking device.
Next semester --
>>Chelsea Clinton: Maybe there's people in
this room who can help with the aesthetics
of it.
>>Eric Berdinis: Right.
So I'm, actually, you know, looking for an
organization to help mentor my partner and
me, someone who can really invest in our creativity
and help us grow this product, someone who
is willing to take on young workers and maybe
help us help them with their stuff as well.
But I guess the biggest thing is, you know,
having these opportunities to create projects
seems to be the biggest thing that's motivated
me, you know, going on in computer engineering
at Penn.
So any type of school project or, you know,
school class that has -- it's project-based
learning where at the end you're actually
creating something, that's where I see my
future is, you know, just building something
or finding a problem that technology has yet
to solve and solving it with technology.
So, for example, you know, Penn has a bunch
of hack-a-thons where -- it's a 48-hour event
where they have students just come together
and build something.
Doesn't really matter, a Web site, a mobile
app, whatever it is.
So what these projects do is it inspires a
lot of people to be creative and to actually
build something on their own.
So, no matter whether they fail or if they
succeed, they'll have done something.
For example, there was one a few weeks ago
my friends and I thought, okay, what can we
do?
What's some sort of funny idea?
We thought, you know, let's say you're watching
a YouTube video -- I know this is kind of
random -- let's say you're watching a YouTube
video and you want to find out what parts
are the funniest.
So, for this hack-a-thon, we built a Web site
that analyzes your facial expressions and
tracks over time which parts you're smiling
at the most or which parts you're laughing
at.
So that, by the end of the video, you can
actually see this is the funniest part of
the video.
Or over time, everyone who's watched this
video agrees, based on their laughing or their
smiles, this is the funniest part.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Maybe you should talk to
Arianna about how to help her with her culture
work.
Shree, what's next for you?
>>Shree Bose: I'm going to make a tangential
point, but I feel like I can't talk about
my future without acknowledging a few of the
amazing people in my past.
So, of course, I have, my parents and my teachers
and --
>>Chelsea Clinton: And your mom is here.
>>Shree Bose: My mom is here.
Hi, Mom.
And my mentor.
But somebody who I probably don't mention
often is my brother, Pinaki, who is two years
older than me, but he has the wisdom of 20
years old.
And he was, actually, the first person who
got me interested in science.
I have a quick little story.
We were looking through home videos the other
day.
And we saw this video where we were both toddlers.
And I'm running around in the sprinklers.
And all of a sudden I decided to crash land
on my wobbly legs.
And I just fall down and start crying.
And he runs up behind me and picks me up and
makes me stop crying.
And, granted, I'm not a wobbly little toddler
any more; but he's always there throughout
my entire life to pick me up when I've fallen
down.
So for the future I would have to say more
tools.
Because my story starts with just clicking
"send" on GMail.
So who knows where somebody else's story will
begin.
So I have a lot of great people.
And, hopefully, I can continue to have those
people in my life.
And I'm looking forward where we end up.
>>Chelsea Clinton: A very good place, I have
no doubt.
Scot?
>>Scot Frank: I started doing this work really
as a matter of chance.
I was studying electrical engineering and
computer science at MIT.
So I think a lot of my classmates are probably
working for everyone's company here.
And the professors I had and the advisors
I had at the time told me I shouldn't do the
type of work that I'm doing now, that there
wasn't a career in it, you couldn't make money.
Then, when I said, well, I'm skipping out
on this semester and I'm going to go to China,
they said that I couldn't.
I still went anyway.
So I think that for people to be supportive
of this type of work in people's ideas and
their dreams is really important.
And for people to, you know, maybe if they
have 20% time that they can lend to helping
mentor, providing service and skills, because
I find it's still -- we have a team of 12
right now.
Even though we're growing and we have a lot
of experience just from some of the hires
that we've made, there's still areas in which
we lack of expertise or the connections.
And so I think that's something that people
like us can always benefit from.
>>Chelsea Clinton: Well, thank you.
I hope you'll let me know how I can help each
of you.
And I hope that all of you in the audience
will talk to them, if they come up to you
during lunch.
And I hope that all of you will take the chance
to wander around Google Young Minds, if you
haven't.
I'll certainly be there at lunch.
And I'm looking forward to learning even more
than I already have.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
