Laya Y

After a community member was swept away in a flood while inside his truck, Laya was determined to apply her interest and acumen in STEM for social change. At the age of 12, Laya and her friend began to build lifesaving technology to address dangerous flooding occurring across their home state of Texas. They conducted research and found that current flood-detecting technology costs over $30,000 to monitor an area—a situation that has led to 99% of Texas’s 1,700 low water crossings to go unmonitored. 


Together, they engineered a solution, called HydroAlert, that costs $50 and can warn people of flooding through text alerts. Determined and steadfast, Laya is implementing the technology across the city of Austin, Texas. Her journey reflects a growing movement of young people designing technology-based solutions to address critical needs in their communities.