Jay Jeong, 18, grew up with his grandparents in South Korea. Walking the streets of Seoul with them as an elementary school student, he noticed that they often failed to follow crosswalk signals and struggled to cross the street in time before cars hissed past.
“You go with them to the local grocery store or the local park and you realize you’re not even halfway there and the light suddenly turns red,” Jung said.
“Once I noticed it, it was really hard to stop noticing it,” he says. “Creating a more inclusive and accessible space has been one of my priorities in recent years.”
An ill-timed crosswalk signal bothered him, but Jung didn’t think he could do anything about it until he discovered his passion for technology in middle school. Now a high school student at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, Jung is realizing his vision of keeping his grandparents safe at crosswalks, and he has a medal and $6,000 to help him do it. He won the Behavioral and Social Science Award at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, for his invention of SmartBlink, an AI-powered adaptive traffic light system that can detect real-time pedestrian movement.
“We want to work with various technology companies to ensure mass production of these systems,” he said.
Teen scientists want to respond to the individual needs of their communities.
Jung said that instead of responding to vehicle traffic like typical intersection signal systems, SmartBlink adjusts signal times at intersections based on the pace of the slowest pedestrians.
For example, a crosswalk signal typically takes 20 seconds, but if SmartBlink predicts that a pedestrian will take 34 seconds based on their first few steps, the system will automatically add 14 seconds to the crosswalk signal, Jung said.
why? “This is to make sure these pedestrians don’t rush and know that they can cross safely,” Jung said.
Jung, who will be a high school senior, said SmartBlink can also detect pedestrians using wheelchairs, crutches or canes. He adjusted the algorithm to work with different lighting, so it can be used at any time of the day or night.
While his invention has not yet been implemented at any crosswalks, Jung said the next step is to pilot SmartBlink with local governments in different communities.
“We want to design specific solutions for each community because each community has different needs and circumstances,” he said.
Madeline Mitchell’s role covering women and the care economy for USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Contact Madeline at: memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ At X.
