A 17-year-old student from Plano, Texas, has built an artificial intelligence tool to track air pollution in vulnerable neighborhoods, winning a national award and $10,000 for his work.
asserted
student → build → work
Nathan Tan started the non-profit group Shared Skies Initiative to fight environmental inequality across Dallas, where poorer communities and minority families often breathe dirtier air but lack local pollution monitors.
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communities → start → monitors
His work earned him the 2026 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, an annual award given to 25 outstanding young leaders across the United States and Canada.
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work → earn → States
Personal struggles spark project
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struggles → spark → project
According to North Texas E-News, Tan was inspired to act by his own health struggles and local volunteering.
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Tan → accord → struggles
The teenager suffers from a respiratory illness and has lost family members to lung cancer.
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teenager → suffer → cancer
While tutoring primary school children in West Dallas, a student asked him why the air outside looked so hazy.
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air → tutor → him
When Tan looked into the issue, he found that children in West Dallas suffer from asthma at rates several times higher than the Texas state average.
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children → look → average
Despite the health risks, only one official monitoring station covered an area of more than 900 square miles, leaving whole neighborhoods without reliable air data.
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station → cover → data
Smart code fills monitoring gaps
Buying and installing physical air sensors across every street was far too expensive.
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Buying → fill → street
To solve this, Tan created a computer program that uses machine learning to predict pollution levels in areas without physical monitors, using existing physical sensors to check the calculations.
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that → solve → calculations
Today, around 1,000 Texas residents use his live online map to check local air quality in real time.
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residents → use → time
Tan believes scientific research should help people directly in their daily lives.
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research → believe → lives
“Research only makes a difference when it reaches the people it is about,” Tan said.
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Tan → make → people
“A paper in a journal won't protect a child from polluted air as he walks to school, but a bilingual booklet a mother can read will.”
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mother → protect → school
Free books and clean air units
Alongside the digital map, the Shared Skies Initiative provides practical help to local families.
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Initiative → provide → families
As reported by Plano Magazine, Tan’s team wrote a simple 50-page guide to air pollution in English and Spanish, giving copies to more than 60 low-income schools and reaching roughly 30,000 pupils.
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team → report → pupils
The group has trained 300 young ambassadors to read air data and help their families stay safe from pollution.
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families → train → pollution
They have also built and handed out 50 homemade air filters—which clear up to 95 per cent of indoor dust and smoke—along with 10,000 protective KN95 face masks.
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which → build → masks
The team also speaks out on local environmental issues.
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team → speak → issues
They have organized letter-writing campaigns and given testimony at city council meetings, asking local officials to shut down an industrial shingle plant located right next to homes in West Dallas.
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They → organize → Dallas
National honor for young leaders
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes awards $10,000 to 15 top winners each year to help fund their university studies or expand their community projects.
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Prize → award → projects
Tan is one of two winners chosen from Texas in 2026.
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Tan → choose → 2026
The prize was created by author T. A. Barron to highlight young people making a real difference to communities and the environment.
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prize → create → communities
“Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” Barron said in a press release.
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Barron → make → release
“And we need our heroes today more than ever.
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we → need → heroes
Not celebrities, but heroes – people whose character can inspire us all.
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character → inspire → us
That is the purpose of the Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”
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stories → shine → others
The Aporia
