“Bengaluru Teen Wins $400k Prize in Tech Czar Contest”

“Bengaluru Teen Sia Godika Wins $400k Prize in Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2023”

A 17-year-old girl named Sia Godika from Bengaluru won a big science competition called the Breakthrough Junior Challenge in 2023. She made a video about something called ‘Yamanaka Factors,’ which are important in science. Her video showed an old lady becoming young again, and it talked about discoveries by a famous scientist named Shinya Yamanaka.

Sia’s prize for winning was a huge $400,000! She got $250,000 for college, her teacher got $50,000, and her school, Neev Academy, received $100,000.

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a competition where people make science videos. It was started by important people like Sergey Brin (from Google), Anne Wojcicki, Yuri Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg. Its goal is to encourage creativity and teach important science concepts like physics and math.

This year, there were 2,400 people who entered the competition. Winning it is a big deal, often compared to winning an Oscar in science. Sia’s family is especially proud because her brother also won the same competition six years ago.