Future Leaders Winner Has Already Built Search Engine, Started A Company
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) – Every month during the school year, CBS4, along with our partner PDC Energy, honor a high school student who excels in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields, or STEM. Each winner gets $1,000 and a profile on CBS4 News.
Luke Pisano is a sophomore at Green Mountain High School, and already he's making huge strides in computer sciences.
"There were no other really good alternatives to Google that really primarily focused on research," Pisano told CBS4.
Pisano couldn't find what he wanted, so it built it himself. iMASSE.com stands for It's My Awesome School Search Engine. It's an internet search engine designed for researchers.
"I thought there could be a way that you could get citations from search results right away," he explained.
He built it and incorporated it. The website does have advertising just like Google, but one of the benefits is it doesn't track your searches.
"I hope to get it in every school district as they're default, as well as, other people outside of school being able to research easier with it," Pisano said.
A portion of the money that iMASSE makes goes to support education programs, and nations that don't have as good education opportunities for students. It's a remarkable accomplishment for a sophomore in high school, but it's just the start for Pisano.
"I hope that I'll be able to make big strides in computer science and strive technology, particularly AI," Pisano said.
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It was engineering that posed his most recent challenge. In his freshman year, Pisano took the Geometry in Construction class at Green Mountain High School.
"I hated the idea of engineering. I really didn't like power tools at all. But it did teach me that I can pretty much learn anything as long as I practice," he said.
"With the $1,000 that you're getting, what are you planning to do with the money?" asked CBS4's Lauren Whitney.
"I want to donate some money back, as well as use the other amount of money to grow my business and pay for the servers I need, and advertising," Pisano explained.
