Using thumbprints, vaccination records to save children’s lives

As COVID-19 vaccination efforts ramp up in developing nations, accurate and accessible vaccination records are critical for children who often lack official identification necessary for the delivery of government or medical assistance. Fortunately, the solution to this problem and the broader need for child identification has been researched for years now by Anil Jain, a Michigan State University Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering. Jain and his team of researchers — Joshua Engelsma, Debayan Deb and Kai Cao — are now advancing the use of groundbreaking fingerprint recognition systems for children as young as a few months old.