14歲時你在干嘛？逃課、早戀、面臨被數理化支配的恐懼？ 這位14歲的華裔少女卻已經開發出了世界上第一款阿茲海默癥APP了！

阿茲海默癥俗稱“老年癡呆癥”，華裔少女Emma Yang?10歲時，她最愛的奶奶阿茲海默癥病情惡化，為幫助奶奶記起與家人的點滴，她決定開發一款名為“永恒”（Timeless）的APP。

該APP將幫助無數的患者和家屬們，現在，Emma的故事已經感動了很多人，連美國前副總統阿爾·戈爾和億萬富翁比爾·蓋茨也在推特上對她表示贊賞：“我喜歡這個故事這個APP為阿茨海默病患者和他們所愛的人搭起了橋梁”。

近日，南華早報（South China Morning Post）專訪了這位14歲的創業小女孩，流利的英文表達搭配堅定的眼神，難怪比爾蓋茨都為她打call。

At the age of 14, the Hong Kong-born Yang has already created her own mobile app for Alzheimer’s patients, which has impressed the likes of Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates and Alibaba Group Holding executive vice-chairman Joseph Tsai.

The Timeless app, which Yang spent two years developing and refining, comes with several core features. It uses an artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition system, from Miami-based start-up Kairos, to help Alzheimer’s patients identify people in photos and remember who they are.

It also allows photos to be grouped by individuals as well as provide a picture-based phone book, which enables a user to tap on photos to call or text a person.

“What really motivated me to [work on Timeless] was seeing how many people were reacting to it, saying I would love to have this for my own family members [have Alzheimer’s],” Yang said.

She is part of a growing number of teenagers who have studied software coding and become entrepreneurs at a young age, as more students in Hong Kong are steered towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to help foster a culture of innovation in the city.

The inspiration to develop an app that would help Alzheimer’s patients connect with their loved ones came to Yang at the tender age of 12, when her grandmother – who suffers from the chronic neurodegenerative disease – started forgetting things like what she ate for dinner and Yang’s birthday.

“I wanted to create something to help people like my grandmother stay connected with her family,” Yang said. It was a task she was well-prepared to undertake.

“I started learning coding when I was around six, and later began developing games and websites,” Yang said. The young software developer said winning a competition, in which she developed an app to identify whether a head injury could be a concussion, led her to appreciate the impact of technology on people’s lives.

“I thought [then] that if I know how to code, I should also have the ability to help people,” she said.

Yang’s father, who works in the technology industry, was the one who introduced her to computers and Scratch, a block-based visual programming program targeted at kids.

Still, Yang’s life as a young software developer and entrepreneur has not been without formidable challenges. She cited as an example how venture capitalists have not taken her work seriously. Some of these people even suggested that she exhibit her project at science fairs or “put it online and see how it does”.

Undeterred by those setbacks, Yang started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in March last year to support her Timeless app project. That effort raised more than US$10,000.

“I think perseverance is really important,” Yang said. “Never let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t be in the field that you want to be in the most.”

At present, Yang works with an international team that includes a designer in California and a developer based in Cologne, Germany. The chief technology officer of Kairos, the AI start-up whose technology is used in the Timeless app, is now Yang’s adviser.

She urged other young, aspiring entrepreneurs to believe in themselves because the teenagers of today will be tomorrow’s leaders.

“Technology has been able to empower kids from all walks of life to put their ideas into action,” she said. “As long as you get out there and put yourself out there, tell people about your idea and … find out who’s on board and can get behind it, you’ll [eventually] find that team of people.”

14歲華裔天才少女

Emma Yang今年14歲，中文名叫楊君熙，生活中是個喜歡自行車和喵星人、有些內向的華裔少女。

當然，她還有另一個更廣為人知的身份，那就是天才少女程序員！

6歲就開始學習編程的她，對計算機技術有著強烈的興趣，熱衷于用電腦創造各種有趣的事物！

10歲之前，Emma都在香港和奶奶住在一起，她和奶奶關系十分親密，行為、表情、習慣等都深受奶奶的影響媽媽說她就是“奶奶的影子”。

不幸的是，在Emma 7歲的時候，奶奶被確診為阿茲海默癥患者，這種病癥在不同人的身上有不同的癥狀，Emma的奶奶則是開始忘記一些事情。

Emma10歲那年，她的父母決定搬到紐約去生活，但同時奶奶的病情開始惡化，常和奶奶打越洋電話的Emma發現：奶奶總是不停地重復同樣的問題。一遍又一遍地問她“最近還好嗎？”明明幾分鐘之前剛剛回答過了，奶奶也會馬上忘記。

奶奶忘記了她的生日，總是搞不清楚她現在幾歲，也記不住爸爸的電話號碼，只能將一些重要信息記在家里的白板上。

家人給奶奶買了一部iPad，將重要的家庭照片存在里面，希望奶奶可以翻看照片找回記憶。

但Emma仍感到很害怕，萬一奶奶不認識她了怎么辦？萬一奶奶走丟了怎么辦？這樣的問題光是想想就讓人難受，這種事情絕不能發生！Emma決定要用自己的電腦技術，幫助奶奶重拾記憶。

希望APP能幫助更多患者

那么，要怎么做呢？

Emma想到了開發一款專門針對阿茲海默癥患者的APP，但Emma雖是程序天才，開發APP這種龐大的工程她也沒有嘗試過，幸好，一路總有許多貴人相助。

Emma的父親本身就是軟件工程師，他給了Emma許多技術上的支持，但既然是為阿茲海默癥患者開發的APP，自然應該了解患者最需要的是什么，為此，Emma做了大量的調查研究并咨詢了許多專業人士

她發現患者常常無法識別親友的面孔，于是在APP中導入了面部識別技術，當患者使用這個 APP 時，它會不斷滾動親友的照片，并通過面部識別技術，告訴患者目前屏幕上顯示的人和自己是什么關系。

APP中有一個記錄當日重要事項的日歷，還包含一個家庭成員的快速呼叫頁面，包含照片、姓名等全部信息，此外還有一頁名為“我”，在這一頁顯示了病人自己的信息，包括姓名、家庭住址、年齡和電話號碼。

當患者因為病情而反復撥打一個電話時，APP 會作出提醒：“您確定要打電話嗎？你五分鐘前才剛給這個人打過電話”可以說是非常貼心了

當然，光靠Emma一個人的力量是無法開發出這款APP的，面部識別技術來自于一家叫Kairo的公司，他們為許多APP做過內嵌的面部識別功能，公司首席技術官Cole Calistra十分欣賞Emma：“對于那個年齡段的人來說，能有如此驅動精神真的非常了不起“

阿茲海默癥專家Kramps 和美國加州記憶與衰老中心副教授Possin都給了Emma很大的幫助他們不斷地給Emma提出反饋意見，經過無數次的改良才有了現在的“永恒”

在受邀前往Ted演講時Emma 說：“希望永恒能幫助到世界各地的阿爾茨海默患者”

阿茲海默患者的寒冬

說到阿茲海默癥，大家也許會覺得很熟悉，但其實真正了解的人并不多，這已經是世界上最嚴重、患病上升率最高的疾病之一了，其中以中老年人居多，但年輕人里也不乏案例。

據統計，目前全球約有5000萬人深受阿茲海默癥的折磨，到2050年，這個數字會上升到1.3億！

也就是說，你的親人、朋友都有可能患上這種疾病，慢慢忘記你們之間的點點滴滴，甚至連生活也無法自理！

阿茲海默患者的“寒冬”正在來臨，但是大家似乎還不重視這個問題，Emma在做市場調查時發現市場上相關的應用程序非常少，因此她決定“用技術的力量來填補這個空白”。

目前，“永恒”還在進行程序優化，Emma已經在網上進行眾籌，希望能籌到5萬美元用于開發和推廣，如果順利，應用有望在2018年底正式上線。

而她本人則希望能在大學里更深入地了解計算機科學和人工智能技術，在這些領域探索和發展自己的事業，她希望未來“科技能找到一種治療阿爾茨海默癥的方法，而‘永恒’將成為診斷和治療之間病人的過渡工具”。

也難怪比爾·蓋茨都為她點贊，心懷夢想，大膽實踐，如果有越來越多Emma這樣的人，阿茲海默癥患者的“春天”也不會太遠吧。

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