Liz Ammirato
Andrew Liang, age 16, of San Jose, California, has been named a finalist of the 2024 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. Each year, the Barron Prize celebrates 25 inspiring young leaders – fifteen top winners and ten finalists – who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment. This year’s Barron Prize finalists are an outstanding group of young heroes chosen from nearly 500 applicants across the U.S. and Canada.
Andrew created Beewell, an AI-driven system that improves bee colony health monitoring for beekeepers. His system runs bees’ appearances and sounds through neural networks to provide real-time livestreams of beehives and accurate assessments of hive health. Fascinated by animals and nature since childhood, Andrew was alarmed to learn of the 40% decline in beehives over the past decade. Determined to help protect hives, he began asking beekeepers near his home and around the world for data on their bees and became a beekeeper himself. When he noticed a strong correlation between the appearance of bees, the sounds they made, and their hive’s health, he began working to integrate visual and audio signals into a monitoring system. Twenty prototypes later, he developed a novel neural network to merge the signals and differentiate between various states of hive health. He has published a peer-reviewed paper on his work, educates students at local schools, and organizes honey sales to support local beekeepers. He is also working with Campbell city officials to change laws that severely restrict residents from beekeeping within city limits. “Throughout this journey, I’ve learned that my scientific efforts are much more meaningful when I am working to benefit society,” says Andrew.
The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T. A. Barron and named for his mother, Gloria Barron. Since then, the Prize has honored 600 young people who reflect the great diversity of America. All of them demonstrate heroic qualities like courage, compassion, and perseverance as they work to help their communities or protect the planet.
“Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” says T. A. Barron. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes – people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”
For more information, visit
www.barronprize.org.
Media Contact:
Liz Ammirato
liz@callprinc.com
914-299-3882
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