Student Entrepreneur
Aims to Make the
World a Safer Place
Every Frisco ISD student has his or her own story and dreams.
Meet Gouzia Sivarajah.
Gouzia Sivarajah thinks big.
“I’m hoping to take SIINNO Technology
global and improve the lives of people all
around the world,” she said.
The young entrepreneur is just a soph-
omore at Heritage High School, but al-
ready she has achieved things many
people only dream about.
A g ra d u a t e o f Fr i s c o Yo u n g
Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!), she
launched her own company at only 14
years old. She got the idea for her first
product, a device to assist people with
low or no vision, at age 12.
“I saw a blind person hit his head on a
tree branch and he had a cane,” she said.
“That inspired me to start creating the
MAVI.”
The Movement Aid for the Visually
Impaired, or MAVI, has sensors to detect
objects around someone and uses buzz-
ing tones and vibrations to alert the per-
son of potential hazards. The device could
be used independently or with a cane or
service animal to minimize mobility ob-
stacles and improve safety.
Sivarajah created early prototypes of
the MAVI for her eighth grade science proj-
ect after her older brother, Krish, taught
her the basics of coding. The project
won the grand prize in the junior division
for physical sciences at the 2016 Dallas
Regional Science and Engineering Fair,
and moved on to a second-place finish
at the Texas Science & Engineering Fair.
It’s the first of many technological devices
Sivarajah hopes to bring to the market to
enhance people’s lives.
“I can’t wait to get the MAVI into the
hands of the blind community so they can
live safer and better lives,” she said.
The desire to compete and innovate
runs in the family. Both Gouzia and anoth-
er older brother, Keirth, were top winners
of start-up funding through the annual
YEA! investor panel.
The YEA! program, a partnership be-
tween the Frisco Chamber of Commerce,
Frisco Economic Development
Corporation and Frisco ISD, guides mid-
dle and high school students through the
process of starting a real business.
Gouzia says her teachers and mentors
through the YEA! program helped inspire
her success. Her family has also been a
huge influence.
“I know it sounds boring, but research
is one of my favorite things to do,” she said,
noting her father has always stressed the
importance of learning new things.
Sivarajah says she learned organiza-
tion from her grandmother and the value
of hard work and competition from her
mother.
“My mom says, ‘You can never lose
anything through competition, but there
is so much you can gain,’” Sivarajah said.
Gouzia took first place for entrepre-
neurship at the Business Professionals
of America (BPA) State Leadership
Conference last spring and advanced to
national competition. She is active in BPA
and HOSA-Future Health Professionals
this school year and hopes to one day
work in the medical field.
“I want to become a successful doc-
tor to help people and help save lives,”
she said.
She is already making an impact. n
Heritage High School
sophomore Gouzia
Sivarajah founded her
own company, Safety
Integrated Innovation or
SIINNO Technology, to
develop solutions that
improve people’s lives.