Teen in UAE Uses AI to Fight Deepfakes and Boost Farming

When Bashaar Naik approaches a problem, he doesn't ask what technology can do. He asks what people need.

The 19-year-old computer engineering student at American University of Sharjah has spent his teenage years building AI tools that tackle real challenges. Growing up in Sharjah since he was three months old, he's turned classroom curiosity into award-winning solutions that span agriculture, transportation, and digital safety.

His first breakthrough came in 2022 with an AI system that predicts soil mineral concentrations for farmers. The tool analyzes soil composition, temperature, pH levels, and rainfall to help farmers make smarter decisions about which crops to plant. The project won first prize at the GITEX YouthX Hackathon that same year.

Naik didn't stop there. In 2023, he created an AI-powered system to improve vehicle fuel efficiency across the UAE, earning top honors at the RTA Dubai Sustainability and Transport Innovation Hackathon. The project aligned perfectly with the country's sustainability goals while addressing a challenge every driver faces.

His most recent innovation tackles a problem spreading across the internet. This January, Naik and his team built a browser extension that detects deepfakes, those eerily realistic but fake videos and images that fuel misinformation and fraud online. The tool earned the Most Innovative Project award at the InnovateX Hackathon.

Between competitions, Naik has made space for others to shine. In 2024, he organized TEDxSISJ Youth, bringing together over 30 young TEDx speakers from across the UAE. Later that year, he took the stage himself to discuss how our physical and digital worlds are merging.

The Ripple Effect spreads beyond his technical work. In 2023, the Indian Association Sharjah recognized his academic achievements and community involvement with the Social Endowment Award. That same spirit of collaboration led his school team to second place internationally in the OTIS Made to Move Communities programme, where they developed EcoWheels, a sustainable transport concept.

Naik credits the UAE for shaping his perspective. Living in a country that brings together people from every corner of the world taught him to think broadly about problems and solutions. The country's focus on turning bold visions into reality showed him that innovation means improving lives, not just building impressive technology.

He graduated as his school's top CBSE Grade 12 student in 2024, but the numbers matter less than the impact. Every project starts with a simple question: what challenge do people actually face?

For a young innovator raised in the Emirates, the answer always leads back to creating opportunities for others, not just taking them.