YUVAi - Global Youth Challenge

We are delighted to announce that our student par-excellence, Pranet Khetan has achieved another milestone, he is the recipient of the first prize for his project 'paraspeak" at the YUVAi – Global Youth Challenge 2026.

Paraspeak is a multi-model device to develop end-to-end speaker-independent automatic speech
recognition solutions for dysarthric speech in low-resource languages. The aim is to make speech technology more inclusive and accessible for individuals with dysarthria, a motor-speech disorder.

Pranet started with collecting the largest database of Hindi dysarthric speech using a custom-made 2-part algorithmic data collection toolkit for efficient large-scale collection. With this data, he experimented with the latest cutting-edge deep learning models to understand slurred speech using AI. Creating these AI systems was a major process in itself, encompassing various algorithmic processing techniques paired with state-of-the-art transformer architectures. To make the model accessible, he developed an affordable, pocket-sized device that can record dysarthric speech, apply AI processing, and speak out clear, intelligible speech that others can easily understand. At under $25, this breakthrough technology makes effective communication accessible to dysarthric patients in their native language, potentially transforming daily interactions for thousands of individuals who previously struggled to be understood.

His work reflects a strong commitment to leveraging technology for social good and places
him among the brightest young minds in the world.

Huge congratulations to Pranet on this incredible achievement!