It doesn't take a long conversation with Brittany Wenger to get a sense of her intellect.
"Some artificial neural networks are definitely like that but mine particularly works with cancer diagnostics," she explained
Wenger was in 7th grade when she wrote a computer program that mimics how the human brain makes decisions - something called an artificial neural network. Her first application: how the brain thinks when playing soccer.
Five years later, she'd developed a focus that was a bit more sophisticated: using her artificial neural network to try to help fight breast cancer and leukemia.
"I kind of worked on it from my bedroom for, you know, that two-and-a-half year period and then I took it to the Google Science Fair, which is the largest online science fair. And I ended up winning the grand prize, which was absolutely insane. "
The software she developed in her bedroom essentially crunches massive amounts of data collected worldwide. That allows breast cancer to be detected by a biopsy that is less invasive and more reliable - now 99 percent accurate. Wenger took home a $50,000 scholarship and a unique trophy.
"Yeah, it's made out of Legos. ... It's really, really cool," she said, showing it off.
