Cork teen is inspired by her mother to develop global award-winning app

Saanvi Kaushik's app, called Stellar to help children access occupational therapy services remotely, won the Technology category at Technovation

Saanvi Kaushik, 13, from Cork wins global tech competition for developing app Stellar for occupational therapy.

A 13-year-old girl from Cork City has won a global award after she took inspiration from her mother and developed an app that helps patients access occupational therapy services.

Saanvi Kaushik saw how hard her mother worked as an occupational therapist to deliver care to patients over the course of the pandemic.

The Christ King secondary school student designed an app called Stellar to help children access occupational therapy services on a remote basis.

Saanvi was selected as the best in the Technology category at Technovation, a global competition that saw 5,900 girls from 60 countries develop apps that help solve problems within communities.

Congratulations to the #WorldSummit2021 Technology Winners, whose projects are recognized for their innovative tech: pic.twitter.com/F8Gt4Vdoe0

— Technovation (@technovation) August 13, 2021

The easy-to-navigate app provides timely and affordable paediatric OT services to children that need them while allowing OTs to deliver remote appointments, monitor patient progress, and develop individualised programmes for children.

Currently, there are 30,000 children waiting for OT services in Ireland and according to Saanvi, these waiting times are only getting worse due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As the lists get longer, more children are suffering. I thought there must be a way to use technology to tackle this.

“I hope that Stellar will support families by providing high-quality content developed by experienced OTs and allowing them to search for these services in their localities,” she said.

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“Every child, no matter where they live, should have access to the highest quality services.” 

Saanvi was able to develop the app with the help of charity Teen-Turn, which works to tackle the low number of women from under-served areas and under-represented communities who are attaining third-level qualifications in STEM.

She beat out teams from around the world to be selected as one of six junior finalists in the annual competition organised by the educational nonprofit Technovation, which aims to encourage girls interested in technology and problem-solving.

Her fellow finalists in the junior division of the Technovation competition included teams from Brazil, Vietnam, the US, Sri Lanka, and Spain.

Saanvi says she feels proud that she has been recognised for her app and hopes she will have made “a difference for many children and their families".