Indian-origin girl launches app for gastrointestinal disorders

The teenager is among winners of Apple 'WWDC21 Swift Student Challenge'

New York:  Abinaya Dinesh, a 15-year-old Indian-origin girl, is among three winners of the annual ‘WWDC21 Swift Student Challenge, a platform for the young brains willing to demonstrate their coding and problem-solving skills, tech giant Apple said on Tuesday.

Passionate about the intersection of medicine and technology, something that became personal for her last year, Dinesh created an app called Gastro at Home, which she plans to launch on the App Store this summer. The app offers people with gastrointestinal disorders a way to access information and resources, especially because those types of conditions can sometimes be sensitive to talk about, the statement by the company said.

The idea of creating such an app came in the mind of Dinesh after she herself suffered from gastrointestinal problems. “I went to a gastroenterologist and he diagnosed me with a pelvic floor disorder. But then told me nothing about how I was supposed to get better,” Dinesh, who lives in North Brunswick, New Jersey, said.

Over the last year, Dinesh has also started her own nonprofit, Impact AI, to foster learning and ethical practices in artificial intelligence among young people. As part of it, she launched an eight-week high school programme, called Girls in AI, to teach young women the basics of programming and machine learning.

“I’m super big on teaching. Showing the next generation that this technology exists and can lead to huge advancements in medicine and society is so important. And I’m proud that after the programme was over, there were seniors applying to college who told me this experience changed what their major was going to be,” said Dinesh.