Bay Area teen using AI to try to prevent future Mars Rover mishaps

PLEASANTON, Calif. - A 14-year-old from Pleasanton is using cutting-edge artificial intelligence in hopes of solving a problem that occurred millions of miles from Earth. 

Bhavishyaa Vignesh, a student at The Knowledge Society San Francisco, is trying develop an AI-powered model to help Mars rovers avoid obstacles, and avoid becoming stuck in Martian soil, like NASA’s Opportunity rover did in 2017.

"There’s a rover on Mars, it’s called Opportunity, and its wheel got stuck in a sand dune," said Vignesh. "What I’m trying to essentially simulate is this type of thing happening in the future, and prevent this from happening again."

At one time, Vignesh dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But her aspirations shifted after she won first place at the 2023 Canadian Space Agency Brain Hack competition. Her winning concept was a virtual reality headset designed to help astronauts manage isolation and emotional stress during space missions.

Now, she’s part of an elite group of students tackling ambitious global challenges on weekends at The Knowledge Society, a STEM accelerator program.

"When she came up with this project, I was really happy that someone was there to guide her, and that someone was there to coach her, and she can run her ideas by like-minded people," said her mother, Suchitra Srinivasan.

The program’s director, Esther Kim, said its mission is to connect students with mentors from top Bay Area tech firms and challenge them to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

"We focus on solving the world’s biggest problems, hunger, cancer, climate change, and we pair emerging technologies with these hard problems to create real-world impact," said Kim. "We don’t create tiny, cute high school projects. We actually want to launch really good ideas in the wild and test them."

Vignesh’s project is currently in development, but she’s already preparing to present other projects, along with other students, at a showcase this Saturday at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. The event is free and open to the public at 10 a.m.

"It’s so important for the future of space travel," Vignesh said. "It’s to showcase how important it is to choose the best possible path."