A 15-year-old Indian-American boy has won the prestigious ‘Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award’ for developing a low-cost electronically-aided knee brace that allows a person with a weakened leg to walk more naturally. Syamantak Payra, a Texas resident, won the $50,000 award along with 17-year-old Kathy Liu. The award was given by Intel Corporation and the Society for Science and the Public (SSP) at the 2016 ‘Intel International Science and Engineering Fair‘ in Arizona last week.

This year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair featured more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 419 affiliate fairs held in 77 countries. A team of students from India also attended the event. Five Indian Americans also figured in the 22 “Best of Category” winners and each received a USD 5,000 prize.

These winners included Rajeev Jha (Hawaii) in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category, Marissa Sumathipala (Virginia) in the Cellular and Molecular Biology, Swetha Revanur (California) in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Tiasha Joardar (Texas) in the Energy: Physical category and Prashant Godishala (Minnesota) in the Translational Medical Science. Under the Intel and Indo-US Science & Technology Forum, three students won the award for a visit to India.