A 16-year-old at Interlake High School spent the past year building an AI app that screens for early signs of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and ALS, earning recognition in a global competition that drew 33,000 entrants from 160 countries.

Ilina Rao, a junior in Bellevue School District 405, developed NeuroSpeak on her own beginning in the summer of 2025. The app uses artificial intelligence to analyze 30-second daily voice recordings, looking for speech patterns that research has linked to neurodegenerative conditions. It has not undergone clinical testing or independent accuracy review.

"It listens to someone's voice and looks for patterns that sometimes show up years before someone is actually diagnosed with something like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or ALS," Rao told the Seattle Times in a profile published Tuesday, July 7.

Rao was named a semifinalist in the Technovation Girls competition on Friday, June 5, selected from roughly 33,000 competitors across 160 countries.

Though the competition typically allows teams of up to five students paired with a mentor, Rao competed alone, working on the app almost every day for months while also carrying International Baccalaureate classes, sports, science fairs, and school clubs.

She did not advance to the final 15 teams when finalists were announced in late June. She told the Seattle Times the competition gave her the chance to share her work with a global audience.

How the app works

Users record a 30-second speech sample each day. The AI analyzes the recording and logs screening results over time, flagging patterns associated with the three diseases. An in-app symptom journal lets users track symptoms alongside the voice data.

Rao stressed that NeuroSpeak is a screening tool, not a diagnostic one. She built it specifically for people who lack easy access to neurologists, citing families in rural areas and those without health insurance as the people she had in mind.

Interlake context

Interlake is one of four comprehensive high schools in BSD405 and an International Baccalaureate World School. According to the school's website, it has produced more National Merit Semifinalists than any public or private school in Washington state for three consecutive years.

The app is not yet publicly available, and no release date has been announced. Rao said she plans to keep developing NeuroSpeak. The Technovation Girls World Summit is scheduled for October 2026 in Bengaluru, India.