A student inventor who taught a tap to clean itself is America's Top Young Innovator 2026

Shalaan Umar has been named America's Top Young Innovator 2026 in the annual student invention competition organized by the International Academy of Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship. He won for a portfolio of patent-pending inventions led by an Automated Water Spigot Sanitization System — a device for the everyday tap that takes on hygiene, water scarcity and public health at once. The 2026 awards also honored student teams for AI in healthcare, a plan to clear space debris from Earth's orbit, and a mental-health innovation; in the companion UAE edition, which drew more than 28,000 public voters, the top prize went to EyesON, an AI guide that helps blind people navigate independently.

SDG 9 · Industry, innovation and infrastructure — Mechanism: individual leader