Samaira Mehta

Described by Vogue Magazine as a 15-year-old “CEO, entrepreneur, and feminist STEM advocate,” Samaira Mehta is breaking down barriers for the future of technology. Her inventions “CoderBunnyz, ”“CoderMindz, ”and “CoderMarz” are board games that simplify the intricacies of how coding and AI work into methodologies that kids as young as 6 years old can understand.

Mehta has received a letter from former First Lady Michelle Obama, is the youngest recipient of the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate award: the Davidson Fellowship, is a Softbank Masason Scholar, and works with the United Nations for gender equality. She was featured on platforms like CNBC, Business Insider, Today Show, and Washington Post for her creations and 500+ workshops that spotlight her board games, through which she has taught over 15,000 kids to code. Mehta has been a speaker at over 100 conferences, including at the Mobile World Conference in 2019 and at corporations like Google, Facebook, SAP, Walmart, and IBM.

After living by the motto “see a need, fill a need,” Mehta recently decided to work towards lowering the fatality rate of ovarian cancer. Her invention, a low-cost Raspberry Pi and AI-powered device that detects crucial biomarkers, won her first at the California State Science Fair. She was also invited to be recognized for her work on the California Senate Floor as a part of AAPI month and was a top 10 finalist for one of the nation’s most prestigious science competitions: the 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Samaira is currently working with the ovarian cancer department at UCLA to truly help better the lives of the hundreds and thousands of patients affected across the world.

She is currently working on publishing her novel with MIT Press and releasing her podcast. Mehta aspires to pursue future studies in computer science, entrepreneurship, and feminist and gender studies. She hopes to keep innovating and sharing her knowledge around the world.