Adrit Rao, 16, is already a coding prodigy and AI enthusiast looking to make an impact in the world of app development and digital health innovation. The teenager from Palo Alto, California, has already received Apple recognition, published a number of apps, and is currently conducting cutting-edge research at Stanford University to use AI to transform healthcare.
“Apps are so engaging and exciting because you can write code and see your inventions come to life right in front of you,” Rao said in an interview with The Ultimate News.
“I started coding when I was eight years old. I was introduced to simple block programming, which involves connecting blocks together to program. This was my first introduction to computer science. I’ve found it. very engaging and interesting,” he added.
Rao delved deeper into computer science and started investigating traditional programming languages. “I wasn’t as interested because I couldn’t see my code come to life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a lot of free time and wanted to try coding in a more fun and exciting way that could help people. That’s when I thought about apps on the App Store,” said Rao, who also revealed that he self-taught app development during the pandemic using YouTube and online resources.
Rao won the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Swift Student Challenge when he was twelve years old. The event also provided him with the rare opportunity to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook. “It was very exciting because I was only about two to three weeks into my app development journey.” “Honestly, that experience inspired me to continue my journey,” Rao said of his meeting with Cook.
Diving Into The World of Apps
Rao has a number of innovative apps to his credit, including four that are available on the App Store. Among them is MoTV, which assists users in discovering movies and TV shows. ShopQuik, a crowd-sourced app for tracking local grocery store wait times during the pandemic (Apple removed it due to obsolescence).
Virtuthon is an app that provides a virtual walkathon experience inspired by pandemic restrictions. Another initiative, Get Involved Service Hours, is a collaboration between Rao’s company, Arètech Inc., and the Get Involved Foundation to promote volunteer work.
“First, I looked up statistics on how many people are deaf worldwide and the communication gap between deaf and non-deaf communities, which inspired me. Then I had the idea to use the iPhone camera to convert gestures into speech. Around that time, Apple had just introduced hand pose tracking and classification using machine learning models at WWDC. So I could train my own AI algorithm on that new technology to enable sign-to-speech conversion,” Rao explained the process of creating Signer.
Journey with Stanford
Rao began a research internship at Stanford University at the age of 13 in order to apply AI to healthcare problems. Over the past three years, he has been dedicated to developing accessible apps that use AI to diagnose vascular diseases.
His most notable innovation, AutoABI, is an iPhone app that detects peripheral arterial disease by listening to arterial sounds. The groundbreaking technology is currently undergoing clinical trials and patent applications. Rao has also contributed to the detection of aneurysms in CT scans using AI and has published over ten scientific research papers, demonstrating his expertise in digital health solutions that have the potential to transform patient care delivery.
“We’re currently working on getting a patent for it. So that app is definitely one of my passion projects. Because it demonstrated that I was able to apply my app development and AI knowledge to actually build a medical solution that was able to be put into clinics and tested and now has the ability to reach so many people,” he said while talking about AutoABI.
Beyond AutoABI, Rao is pushing the boundaries with an AI system for detecting aneurysms in CT scans, as well as contributions to Stanford’s Spezi ecosystem, which enables modular digital health application development. His work on the LLMOnFIRE app demonstrates generative AI’s game-changing potential for improving health literacy.
“This app is a chat interface that allows patients to interact with their health records. And the entire experience of being able to contribute to that ongoing project opened my eyes to the potential of generative AI,” Rao said.
On AI
Rao became interested in artificial intelligence after reading an article when he was 13. According to him, his interest in AI’s limitless potential to transform patient care led to the prestigious research internship at Stanford University.
While Rao’s work primarily focuses on AI applications in Silicon Valley, he recognises the importance of driving equitable healthcare access globally through scalable technologies. “I do not believe AI should replace doctors. But I know it can benefit doctors, particularly in areas where there is a shortage.”
Beyond his coding prowess, Rao founded Aretech Inc, a non-profit that teaches virtual app development through boot camps to aspiring young innovators.
When asked what he would like to tell young Indian aspirants, he replied, “I would simply say that age is not a barrier, and anyone can make a significant difference if they put in the effort. And if they are truly passionate about it.”
“Having a passion, along with the ability to learn from resources online, can really set up anyone no matter how old they are, to make a huge impact.”