Teen Inventor Creates Smarter Crosswalks Inspired by His Grandparents
A caring observation during family outings inspired 18-year-old Jay Jung to imagine a safer, more welcoming way for everyone to cross the street.
Jung, a rising high school senior at a boarding school in Massachusetts, returns to his hometown of Daegu, South Korea, during school breaks. While spending time with his grandparents, he noticed that ordinary traffic signals often failed to give them enough time to reach the other side of a crosswalk.
“Whenever I would go out with them, my grandparents, we would not even be halfway when the traffic light turned red,” Jung told Nice News. “Multiple of these moments made me question: ‘Is it really OK for public-facing infrastructure that’s meant for everybody in the city to be discriminating based on human differences and their abilities?’”
Determined to create a more inclusive solution, Jung developed SmartBlink, an adaptive traffic-light system that responds to the real-time walking speed of pedestrians. Instead of focusing primarily on vehicle traffic, the technology calculates how much time each person needs to cross safely.
To bring his idea to life, Jung spent hours gathering information at a local crosswalk. He then tested, refined, and rebuilt his system through multiple stages. The finished project combines several algorithms with an object-detection model that monitors pedestrian speed.
SmartBlink was designed with accessibility at its heart. Using commercially available hardware and software, it can operate under different lighting conditions and recognize assistive devices such as wheelchairs and crutches with 90%-95% accuracy. A connected app can also provide tactile, visual, and audio notifications.
In his project submission video, Jung noted that traditional traffic signals are based on an assumed pedestrian speed of 3.9 feet per second. However, he explained that “96% of adults over 60 and people with mobility disabilities walk slower” than that standard.
“By knowing their real-time speed, I was able to calculate how much time was needed for each pedestrian to cross a certain length of the crosswalk,” Jung told Nice News. “And by doing this, people can cross without having that enhanced perceived safety of, ‘Oh, I know that the crosswalk will extend time so I don’t have to rush or think about different accidents that can happen, like a car not waiting for them to cross.”
Jung’s thoughtful work earned first place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences category at the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. Organized by the Society for Science, the event is the world’s largest pre-collegiate STEM competition. More than 1,700 finalists representing 60 countries gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, to present their projects and compete for a share of $7 million in prizes and awards.
Beyond inventing, Jung participates in his school’s track team and produces hip-hop and pop music. Although he has not yet decided what path he will pursue after graduating, he hopes to keep using technology to help make sure “that the spaces we inhabit are accessible for everyone.”
He is already contacting policymakers and technology companies in hopes of producing SmartBlink on a larger scale and bringing it to communities where it could make everyday travel safer and more comfortable.
The invention has been especially meaningful to the two people who inspired it.
“They were kind of touched because they didn’t realize that I was, like, taking notes of those small moments,” Jung said of his grandparents. “And when they saw that I made this for them, they were really impressed and also heartwarmed that I thought so deeply about these issues and also these day-to-day experiences that we had together.”
What began with a grandson paying attention to his grandparents’ experiences has grown into a promising innovation rooted in kindness, inclusion, and the belief that public spaces should work well for everyone.
