Nupur is a Girl Scout and a member of the science and math clubs. She enjoys a variety of collecting, from coins to postcards to stamps, and is a member of her school's track team. She wants to enter the medical field. "I feel that being a doctor would give me the best opportunity to help people."
Mrs. Stephano, Nupur's gifted-program science teacher, is her mentor, because "she has taught me about independence, hard work and to ask the right questions in seeking the truth."
After realizing that math problems can be stated in different ways but that they always have the same result, Nupur wanted to understand how the brain processes knowledge and information. She hypothesized that it is possible to use a computer to develop a methodology for analyzing and paraphrasing a problem statement or text in a way that is similar to how humans analyze the same problem.
To test her hypothesis, Nupur used a simple math word problem and had different people solve the problem and explain their thought processes to her. She then developed simple logic based on key words and wrote a Visual Basic program. With repeated testing, Napur was able to "build" the computer's vocabulary of key words. She concluded that this approach can be used to create better teaching programs and to work with voice-interactive devices.
