Dan Alferov, a 17-year-old A.B. Lucas student, has been named a Manning Young Canadian Innovator at the Canada Wide Science Fair (CWSF).
The Grade 12 student was given the honour by the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation as part of their Young Canadian Program for his work on using facial expressions to help diagnose mood disorders.
Alferov was one of 468 competitors at the 54th Canada Wide Science Fair, and was presented with the honour at the event in New Brunswick.
The award comes with a cash award of $7,500 and a trip to Saskatchewan for the foundation's National Awards Gala.
Alferov says he has been working as a volunteer at Western University's Brain and Mind Institute for years and says the project was inspired by the anxiety and minor depression faced by many of his fellow students.
In a statement he says, "Doing research on the diagnosis of mental illness opened my eyes to the challenges faced by clinicians. As a result, I was inspired to use my knowledge of visual perception to try to create a supplementary test which could help to confirm a diagnosis."
This isn't the first time the brainy teen has been honoured, he's had his research published and was recognized at the 2014 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Cengiz Eller, a 16-year-old student at Owen Sound's St. Dominique Savio, was also recognized with the Manning Innovation Achievement Award as well as a Silver Medal of Excellence in the Senior Category at the CWSF.
For his project, 'Invest with Hal,' Cengiz taught himself computer science and created his own automatic financial advisor using a self-developed algorithm.
