Horizon West student wins national invention contest for hearing loss

As a swimmer, Horizon West 9-year-old Roy Zheng found himself having a hard time hearing his instructor’s commands underwater. 

Zheng depends on his cochlear implant to hear, but the sounds are muffled underwater. 

It inspired an idea. 

What if there were artificial intelligence-powered swimming goggles that could produce closed-captioning and translation to understand people while he was swimming?

His idea led to him being the only child from the U.S. to win this year’s IDEASforEARS competition, which is MED-EL’s global invention contest for children ages 6 through 12, encouraging children to use creativity to find ways to help those with hearing loss through accessibility, inclusion and awareness in a fun and friendly competition. 

Roy first obtained hearing aids at age 2. 

Yinxia Wu, Roy’s mother, said the diagnosis was hard on the family at first. Finding out she and her husband carried the gene that led to Roy’s profound hearing loss was devastating, but they didn’t let that stop them from getting Roy the proper resources from an early age. 

Soon, he was in speech therapy, early intervention and often seeing an audiologist. 

His parents were optimistic that Roy would be able to live a relatively normal life with these early intervention practices. 

Soon after, Roy had his MED-EL cochlear implants, which allowed him to properly pick up pitch and voice tones in his native language, Chinese. 

Roy’s implants are a part of him, and most times, he doesn’t even notice they are there, unless he’s in crowded spaces or somebody points them out. 

When he’s at the mall or in a noisy environment, Roy’s hearing diminishes. He then can only hear bits and pieces of sentences, which can be quite frustrating. On top of that, if there is any yelling or screaming, that becomes amplified. 

As the only deaf child at school, students often come up to him to ask questions. 

“At first, I couldn’t get used to it,” Roy said. “But now I’m happy people ask questions because more and more people are learning about the deaf.” 

He’s found joy in helping others understand the deaf community and went a step further to create a product that would help deaf athletes underwater. 

In 2025, he submitted a simpler version of his idea to IDEASforEARS — he thought as long as AI could tell swimmers what was being said, nothing else was necessary. 

But he didn’t win. That’s when he realized it needed more. 

He added the closed-captions and translations to his invention and submitted the idea again. 

His win came as a surprise, he said, though he strives to be creative in ways that not only benefit him but also others across the world who also live with hearing loss.

His mom wanted to make his win special for him, so she kept it a secret and surprised him at school.  

“We had early recess (at school) for some reason, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s strange,’” Roy said. “When we came back from recess, I saw it.’” 

MED-EL workers, teachers and Wu all were there to share he was this year’s IDEASforEARS U.S. winner. 

“I was surprised and very happy,” Roy said. 

His classmates hugged him and cheered for him, jumping up and down, showing excitement for his accomplishment. 

The joy didn’t end there. Winners also were gifted a trip to MED-EL’s headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria, so off to Europe they went. 

There, Roy and Wu met other participants and their families, learned more about MED-EL and shared educational time together. 

“I never knew there were so many deaf people,” Roy said. “The experience was really cool.” 

Roy met the makers of his cochlear implants, who showed him how the technology is made and how it works under the skin behind the ear — something about which Roy always was curious. 

He also visited MED-EL’s interactive museum, Audioversum, where Roy learned more about his cochlear implants in a fun, hands-on way. 

His favorite part was making new friends, not only with other participants but with the makers of his cochlear implant as well. 

It was an experience he will never forget. 

Roy said this competition taught him to try new things, and he’s excited to create a new invention for next year’s IDEASforEARS.  

“This reminds everyone we’re a very wonderful community and we can do great things,” Wu said. “As his mom, I’m always proud of him. Not because he won this competition, but because he can turn his own challenge into an idea, and if this idea becomes reality, it will help a lot of children like him.” 

Today, Roy holds the trip close to his heart, alongside the medal he received and a certificate he said is almost as tall as him.