A Cork teenager has won a global technology award for Stellar, a paediatric occupational therapy app that provides timely and affordable services to children who need them.
Saanvi Kaushik (13), from Cork city, won the technology category at Technovation, a competition that saw 5,900 girls from 60 countries developing 1,700 mobile apps that aspire to solve community problems.
Ms Kaushik, whose mother is an occupational therapist, developed Stellar to create a safe platform for occupational therapists to deliver remote appointments, monitor progress and develop individualised programmes for children.
"There are currently 30,000 children waiting for occupational therapy in Ireland and these waiting times are only getting worse due to Covid-19. As the lists get longer more children are suffering. I thought there must be a way to use technology to tackle this," she said.
“Every child, no matter where they live, should have access to the highest quality services.”
Ms Kaushik developed Stellar with the help of Teen-Turn, an Irish non-profit organisation that works to tackle the low number of women from underserved areas and underrepresented communities who are attaining third-level qualifications in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects.
