For Jay Jung, the problem was right there at the crosswalk.

Jung, 18, grew up with his grandparents in South Korea. Walking around Seoul with them as an elementary schooler, he noticed they often could not keep up with pedestrian crossing signals and struggled to cross the street in time before cars came by.

“Whenever I would go with them to the local grocery store or the local park, I would realize that we were not even halfway and then the light just suddenly turns red,” Jung said.

“Once I noticed it, it was really hard to not notice it,” he said. “Making more inclusive and accessible spaces has been one of my priorities for a couple years now.”

The crosswalk lights bothered him, but Jung did not think he could do much about it until he found his passion for technology in middle school.

Now a high school student at Phillips Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, Jung has turned that idea into SmartBlink, an AI-powered adaptive traffic light system that can detect real-time pedestrian movement.

He won the Behavioral and Social Sciences award at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair for the invention. The fair is described as the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Jung also received a medal and $6,000.

Instead of catering to automobile traffic like typical intersection signal systems, Jung said SmartBlink adjusts crossing signal times based on the pace of the slowest pedestrian.

For example, Jung said if a crosswalk signal usually lasts 20 seconds, but SmartBlink predicts one pedestrian will take 34 seconds based on their first few strides, the system would automatically add 14 more seconds to the crossing signal.

“To make sure that this pedestrian doesn’t feel rushed and knows that they’re safe crossing,” Jung said.

Jung, who is going into his senior year of high school, said SmartBlink can also detect pedestrians using wheelchairs, crutches or canes. He said he adjusted his algorithm to work in different lighting, so it can be used during the day or at night.

The invention has not yet been implemented at any crosswalks. Jung said his next step is to pilot SmartBlink with local governments in various communities.

“We want to design specific solutions for each community because each community has different needs and different conditions,” he said.

“I want to collaborate with different tech companies to ensure the mass production of these systems are available,” he said.

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