Erin Smith is an American entrepreneur and inventor.[1] She is the founder of FacePrint, a medical technology venture that is developing facial recognition software to assist with the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.[2] Smith was a Thiel Fellow in 2018, and was awarded the first place Young Inventors Prize from the European Patent Office in 2022.[3]

Biography

Erin Smith was raised in Lenexa, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.[4] She has two older sisters and two younger brothers.[4]

During high school, while watching a video interview of Michael J. Fox, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, she observed a distinct emotional distance in his facial expressions.[2][5] She had also previously watched the show Lie To Me, which features a scientist character based on Paul Ekman, who studied facial expressions, which contributed to her interest in developing technology to detect Parkinson's by monitoring faces.[2][4] Smith continued to watch more video interviews of people with Parkinson's and conducted her own research.[2][6]

During a spring break from school, she conducted a study on people with Parkinson's and control subjects without Parkinson's, to document both spontaneous expressions in response to videos and intentional expressions made by subjects attempting to mirror another face.[2] She used the facial recognition software Affdex to help measure the results.[2] She later received support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for two additional pilot studies,[2] including a study that that filmed subjects with webcams while they watched Super Bowl commercials and tried to mirror the expressions of emoji.[6]

In 2016, she participated in the BuiltByGirls Future Founder challenge at Twitter headquarters and won a $10,000 prize to continue researching and developing the app, and apply for a full patent on her work.[6] Smith also received mentoring from the University of Missouri–Kansas City Small Business & Technology Development Center for two years to develop FacePrint into a business.[1]

In 2017, Smith was selected for the Research Science Institute summer program jointly sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education and MIT.[7] She graduated high school in 2018 and was accepted by Stanford University, but deferred admission to become a 2018 Thiel Fellow for two years.[1][8] FacePrint began clinical trials in 2019[2] with Stanford Medical School and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.[9]

As a student at Stanford University, Smith became an ambassador for the IF/THEN collective, an organization that seeks to support women in STEM careers.[9]

Awards and honors

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Lenexa teen IDs winning solution with Parkinson's detection tech FacePrint". Startland News. August 17, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Katwala, Amit (October 6, 2019). "A YouTube binge helped invent a new way to diagnose Parkinson's". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Erin Smith (US)". European Patent Office. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 Hoedel, Cindy (January 1, 2021). "IN Conversation with Erin Smith". IN Kansas City. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  5. ↑ Stone, Zara (2020). The Future of Science Is Female: The Brilliant Minds Shaping the 21st Century. Mango Publishing. ISBN 9781642503203. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Lipoff, Beth (December 28, 2016). "Lenexa student catches attention of Michael J. Fox Foundation". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  7. ↑ "RSI Welcomes 80 Top Scholars to 2017 Summer STEM Institute". www.cee.org. Center for Excellence in Education. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  8. 1 2 Ricks, Dhomonique (June 22, 2018). "Metro teen who developed Parkinson's diagnostic technology named to prestigious fellowship". Fox4. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 McDowell, Maya (December 1, 2020). "Erin Smith is Assembling the Next Generation of Female STEM Innovators". Seventeen. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  10. ↑ Bergen, Katy (June 22, 2017). "Shawnee Mission West High student wins international biotechnology competition". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  11. ↑ "2018 Fellows". Davidson Institute. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  12. ↑ Senter, Jay (November 21, 2018). "SM West grad Erin Smith is youngest member of Forbes 30 Under 30 healthcare list". Shawnee Mission Post. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  13. ↑ Pediani, Steven (June 30, 2022). "EPO's Young Inventors Prize 2022 – Patent – UK". Mondaq. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
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