A 14-year-old girl invented headphones to treat ear infections and won the title of "Best Young Scientist in the United States"

CTOnews.com, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) the 3M Young Scientist Challenge is the most important high school science competition in the United States. This year's prize goes to a 14-year-old Asian-American girl from San Diego, California.

Leanne Fan invented the Finsen headset, a low-cost headphone device that uses machine learning and Blu-ray to detect and treat middle ear infections in children, potentially preventing up to 60 percent of children's hearing loss, Good News Network reported.

As a finalist, Leanne was assigned a mentor, Dr. Ross Behling, a research expert at 3M's materials lab, who worked one-on-one with her during the summer vacation to transform her ideas from concepts to prototypes. The nine finalists then competed for two days in October at the headquarters of 3M in St. Paul, Minnesota.

It is reported that 700 million people worldwide develop otitis media every year, and about 21000 people die as a result, many of whom are children from low-income families. In the absence of medical conditions and / or health care, the diagnosis and treatment of otitis media is often challenging, and the idea of Leanne is to provide a low-cost, antibiotic-free option for the detection and treatment of middle ear infections.

CTOnews.com learned that the incoming high school freshman received a prize of $25000 (about 177000 yuan), a special trip and the title of "America's top young scientist." she plans to use some of the prize money to patent her headphones. The second and third winners each received $1000 (about 7070 yuan) and a special trip.