Jesse Rumball-Smith
Youngest ever winner of the Transportation Group NZ Research Grant (2023–2024). Helped establish New Zealand's first-ever independent ISEF national affiliation — previously NZ students competed under Australia's delegation.
What they built
Jesse self-coded SafeDrive, an AI-powered smartphone app that uses computer vision to detect road risks and promote safer driving in real time. The app reads speed limit signs and traffic lights, detects driver fatigue, distraction and following distance, and delivers psychologically-designed nudge messages to change behavior. Field trials reduced risky driving (speeding and distraction) by 30–35% per journey, with cumulative improvement across repeated trips. Jesse built the project independently because ~90% of NZ road crashes involve driver-related factors — and existing safety policy focused almost entirely on road design rather than preventing crashes at the source.
View ProjectThe F18 Thesis
Verified track record
- Won NIWA Wellington Regional Science Fair Best Overall Exhibit (2022 & 2023)
- First Award — Behavioral and Social Sciences, Regeneron ISEF 2025
- Youngest ever Transportation Group NZ Research Grant recipient
- Presented at Taiwan International Science Fair (3rd place in category)
- Presented at international conference in Germany
- 3rd place at AUSSEF (Australasia)
- SafeDrive reduced risky driving by 30–35% per journey in field trials
- Engineering NZ profile (source)
- NIWA (source)
- RNZ Morning Report (source)
- ISEF 2025 Grand Awards press release (Society for Science) (source)
- Wellington College (source)
- Royal Society NZ ISEF delegation (source)