Maya Varma became fascinated with microcontrollers at a young age, and moved quickly on a technological trajectory that would eventually make her a Bluetooth Breakthrough Award student finalist.

As early as the sixth grade, Maya started working with Arduino boards. A year later, she designed a traffic alert system to prevent accidents due to distracted driving. Then, in the eighth grade, she developed a cost-effective foot neuropathy analyzer to enable early detection of neuropathy in diabetic patients. This project won the grand prize at the California State Science Fair and led Maya to realize that it is possible to develop low-cost devices to replace expensive diagnostic equipment currently used in medicine – an idea that has been at the core of her projects ever since.

Two years ago, Maya’s close friend was taken to the hospital following an asthma attack. During this time, Maya discovered that the spirometers doctors use to check the lungs air capacity of are widely unavailable due to high costs.

“I realized there were millions of people around the world who remained untreated for respiratory diseases due to the high cost of diagnostic equipment. After some research into lung function testing, I came up with the idea for a low-cost pulmonary function analyzer that connects to your smartphone and is easy for anyone to use.”

To develop this system, Maya needed a wireless technology that had very low power requirements and would be universally supported by smartphones and tablets. After evaluating multiple technology choices, Maya found that certain wireless options either did not support enough devices or the power demands limited her implementation options. With Bluetooth, the pulmonary function analyzer would be compatible with the majority of smartphones and tablets on the market and could potentially be used for years without needing a battery replacement.

The project received a national research grant from the Cogito program at Johns Hopkins CTY in early 2014. Maya used the grant to develop an initial prototype and has continued building, modifying, and testing the prototype to create the three-part system she has today.

“I am currently field testing my design in university labs and at hospitals in third-world countries and, eventually, I would like to distribute these pulmonary function analyzers around the world to help save lives of patients.”

In addition to the Bluetooth Breakthrough Awards, the project won accolades from Intel ISEF, Intel STS, and Google Science Fair, among others. It has also been featured on NBC and in Popular Mechanics magazine. Maya is thrilled to receive the attention, but for a very selfless reason: she hopes the added visibility will help her deploy her system at healthcare facilities in developing countries that currently do not have access to diagnostic equipment for respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.

Maya enjoys a wide variety of hobbies, from robotics to art, but her real passion lies in the intersection of biology and technology. Recently admitted to the Harvard University Class of 2020, Maya plans to double major in biomedical engineering and computer science with a long-term plan to obtain an MD/Ph.D. dual degree in the field of biomedical engineering with an emphasis on medical device design. Maya hopes to expand on projects like her pulmonary function analyzer and build innovative and affordable medical devices that are accessible to the large segments of the population who otherwise could not afford modern diagnostic equipment.

When ask what drives her, Maya simply said: “I love using technology to make a difference in society.”

(Credit: Nanci Taplett)