13-Year-Old Creator of Lego Braille Printer Is Youngest Ever to Receiv

[happymark]

http://www.nbcbayare...-281559331.html

From a child playing with Legos to the founder of a Silicon Valley technology company. It's a path many of today's young business leaders have likely followed.

None, however, have made the transition quite as quickly as Shubham Banerjee.

On Tuesday, Intel Capital announced it will invest in Braigo Labs and its 13-year-old founder. This makes Shubham, according to Intel's research, the youngest recipient ever of venture capital funding.

"That's a big thing," Shubham says of the distinction.

Shubham's original Braille printer, Braigo, was created using a $350 Lego Mindstorms robotic kit.

Shubham first came to the attention of the technology world earlier this year when, as a 12-year-old, he created a functioning Braille printer out of a Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. "I was just looking to help the visually impaired," says Shubham of the project, created over a three-month period working nights and weekends on his family's kitchen table in their Santa Clara home.

Shubham says the idea for the printer, eventually dubbed Braigo, started with a flier dropped off at the Banerjee home. It was a request for donations to a charity aiding the blind. Shubham says he had never before given much thought to the lives of the visually impaired.

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He asked his father how blind people read.

Edited November 7, 2014 by happymark

[XAxles]

This is very good and inspiring news.

This better be in the front page.

[Hrw-Amen]

It is both good to know that someone so young was so inspired and also to know that LEGO, something designed as a toy for children to play with, (As well as AFOLS of course.) can be made into something so potentially useful.

[mrbradford]

This is great news! Thanks for sharing!