What were you doing at age 16?
It’s safe to assume you probably weren’t meeting with doctors to pitch a potentially groundbreaking medical invention you created - exactly what Nishi Dharia, a 16-year-old senior from Presentation High School in San Jose, is currently doing.
Dharia has already built and patented an incubator that’s drawing interest from doctors in one of the poorest regions in the world.
She hopes that the invention will help save the lives of newborns.
"I went to India this summer, to personally distribute the incubators and meet with the doctors," Dharia told KCBS Radio’s Bay Current on Monday. "I gave them a demonstration on how to use this incubator, and they gave me very positive feedback."
The incubator, which Dharia first designed when she was in middle school, is constructed like a soft-sided suitcase with a small sleeping bag, allowing the machine to be portable.
KCBS Radio’s Jennifer Hodges reported that Dharia went through a series of prototypes before settling on her "impact incubator."
"It almost looks like a large backpack," Hodges reported.
"It’s interesting because she tried different oils and substances to get the incubator hot, and then she stumbled on paraffin wax, and apparently it stays warm for the baby for up to five hours."
Dharia, whose lifelong dream is to become an obstetrician, has given demonstrations of how to use the incubator in front of Presentation High School.
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