US teenager creates smartphone app that helps locate missing people

Sara Du, 16, won the Young Innovators to Watch award at CES in Las Vegas with her invention Bluejay, an app to assist emergency responders. She programmed a chip, pictured, that attaches to a drone and communicates with the app. (Cindy Yamanaka/Orange County Register/TNS)

IRVINE, California: Sara Du started her coding career two years ago, after reading news articles about kids much younger than her creating smartphone apps. 

She applied for an app development camp for high schoolers at UC Irvine, hoping to get a foot in the door. But she was rejected.