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Naomi Chetan Shah, 17, of Portland, focused on the impact of indoor air quality on the lung health of asthmatic patients for her Intel Science Talent Search environmental science project. Prompted by respiratory disorders in her own family, she spent two years on a project that included collecting more than four million indoor air quality and lung function measurements of healthy and asthmatic volunteers at home and at work. She also developed a mathematical model and interactive software application to quantify the impact of harmful pollutants. To mitigate their effects, she invented a novel, cost-effective biofilter prototype that can metabolically break down volatile organic compounds before they enter the indoor air supply and hopes to patent the software model and her biofilter. Naomi has been recognized by Popular Science as one of the top ten high school inventors of 2012. She has already presented this work at numerous conferences; other honors include a Best of Category award in the Intel ISEF. Naomi lettered in swimming at Sunset High School, and is fluent in Spanish and Gujurati (her mother tongue). She enjoys playing piano, singing and filmmaking. She is the daughter of Chetan and Sonal Shah.
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