How AI is Changing the World — and What a High School Student AI Astronomy Project Means for Gen Z

He didn’t have a telescope.

He didn’t work in a professional lab.

But at just 15, Pranav Sivakumar launched a high school student AI astronomy project that helped discover gravitationally lensed quasars—some of the rarest and most fascinating objects in the universe.

His project earned recognition from NASA, Fermilab, and even the White House.

What’s a Gravitationally Lensed Quasar?

It sounds like sci-fi, but it’s real astrophysics.

Quasars are insanely bright, faraway galaxies with black holes at their centers. Sometimes, a massive galaxy lies directly between us and the quasar. That foreground galaxy bends the light from the quasar around it, sort of like a cosmic magnifying glass. That’s gravitational lensing.

These systems are rare, and finding them helps scientists test theories about dark energy, dark matter, and the very shape of the universe.

How This High School Student Used AI in Their Astronomy Project

He used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a massive open-source catalog of the sky.

Then, with Python and machine learning models he built himself, he filtered through thousands of galaxy images to flag 109 potential lensing systems. His work impressed researchers at Fermilab and NASA, landing him as a finalist (twice!) in the Google Science Fair and earning him the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award.

Eventually, he was invited to the White House Astronomy Night, where President Obama personally acknowledged his work.

All of this. At fifteen.

Why This Matters to Parents and Students Today

Pranav’s story isn’t just inspiring. It’s a clear sign of where the world is heading.

You don’t need to wait for college to do real science. You don’t need a lab.

What you do need is the curiosity to ask questions and the support to build something real.

We’ve seen this firsthand at BetterMind Labs, where high school students are working on their own ambitious projects, from AI-powered wildfire prediction tools to apps that detect signs of early skin cancer using computer vision.

What Will You  Build?

The tools are out there. The data is free. The only missing piece? A community that pushes you to go further than school ever will.

At BetterMind Labs, we help students connect with mentors, use real-world tools, and work on projects that colleges (and the world) actually care about.

Because at the end of the day, there’s no age limit on changing the world. Just ask Pranav.

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Relevant Links:

A Glimpse of the Next Generation of AlphaFold – DeepMind https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/a-glimpse-of-the-next-generation-of-alphafold/

Future of Jobs Report 2025 – World Economic Forum https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/future-of-jobs-report-2025-jobs-of-the-future-and-the-skills-you-need-to-get-them/

Khanmigo for Teachers – AI Teaching Assistant by Khan Academy https://www.khanmigo.ai/teachers

Google Workspace with Gemini – AI Tools for Education https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_au/workspace-for-education/add-ons/google-workspace-with-gemini/

Runway – Creative Tools Powered by AI https://runwayml.com/

Understanding AI Bias in Hiring – VidCruiter https://www.vidcruiter.com/interview/intelligence/ai-bias/

The Promises and Perils of Predictive Policing – CIGI https://www.cigionline.org/articles/the-promises-and-perils-of-predictive-policing/

Timnit Gebru – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timnit_Gebru

AI Now Institute – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Now_Institute

Teachable Machine – Train Machine Learning Models Easily https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/