Visala Tallavarjula

• Davidson Fellow, 2019.
• Synopsys Outreach n+1 Prize for “Next Breakthrough in science/engineering”, April 2019.
• 2016, 2017 and 2018 CA State Winner – US Stockholm Junior Water Prize
• Paderewski Medal – The American College of Musicians/National Guild of Piano Teachers, 2018
• Chairperson, Youth Commission – Santa Clara Valley Water District
• Finalist, 2018 CleanTech Competition ”Solving Climate Change”
• Amgen Bay Area BioGENEius – Second Prize Winner, 2018
• National Finalist – Think MIT Scholarship Program – Presented proposal on Smart Irrigation 
• Regional Finalist: Google Science Fair, 2016 
• Sailing: Basic Keelboat ASA101 Certification. Sailed in Open Ocean, San Francisco Bay
• Wall Insulation Characterization Studies, Energy Efficiency Laboratory, San Jose State University.
• Fluent in Polish and learning French
• Plays Piano & Acoustic Guitar – Likes to Sing – Writes Short Stories.

Fresh Water Loss due to evaporation while irrigating agricultural fields in California. In California 80% of the water is used for agriculture. Even 5% savings mean more than 400 billion gallons of 'Fresh Water' Saved!

When I saw water evaporating from sprinkler irrigation systems in central valley during midday while big electronic signs on the highway were screaming “Serious Drought - Help Save Water ” – I could not believe how much water was being wasted. Upon further research I found that 80% of global fresh water is used in irrigation. And global population, expected to reach 9 billion, will increase food demand by 70%. This increases fresh water demand while the fresh water sources are reducing in arid regions of the world due to climate change. Most of the world’s food production is in arid regions. This combination of factors will increase our water withdrawal leading to water stress.

My first year (9th Grade) I worked on optimizing a top soil bed to reduce evaporation loss by 30% for sub-surface irrigation. In my 10th Grade – I worked an alternate low cost method – infiltration insert – that delivers water to plant root zone eliminating the need for expensive sub-surface irrigation. The insert when combined with gravity fed drip method can achieve sub-surface like irrigation and combined with top soil bed concept reduces evaporation loss. In my third year (2017-18) I worked on reducing percolation loss by creating a charcoal amended Percolation Control Layer (PCL) that combines multiple benefits: 1) Reducing percolation loss by 16% 2) improving root health by increasing microbial activity 3) achieving carbon sequestration that can reverse climate change by burying charcoal and thereby mitigating formation of carbon monoxide. By combing all the optimizations I was able to show that 50% higher yield can be achieved with 50% less water as demonstrated using radish plants in local Sunnyvale farm.