ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — A Cedar Valley Middle School student is one of 10 finalists for the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

Asvini Thivakaran, 12, will compete on Oct. 17 and 18 at the 3M Innovation Center in Minneapolis against nine other students for a grand prize of $25,000 and the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist.”

Thivakaran created a model vehicle that generates clean electric power from tires to charge batteries in electric vehicles.

The 3M Young Scientist Challenge honors students in grades five through eight, who use scientific thinking to create an innovation to improve lives here and around the world.

According to a release from 3M, this year’s finalists and honorable mention recipients are 14 students ages 12 to 14 who sent in a video showing a scientific solution to an everyday problem in their community.

In 2018, KXAN profiled Thivakaran after she started a community-wide battery recycling project that earned her a President’s Environment Youth Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Thivakaran has her own website called “Asvini’s Planet.”