Six Indian-American students have captured the top positions, including two winning spots in two separate categories, in a $1 million Intel Talent Search contest, a prestigious US competition for young innovators.

Two 17-year-old high school students have won the top prize of $150,000 with their medical-related projects, the Society for Science and Public (SSP) announced on Tuesday. Adding this two of the $75,000 second prizes, and two of the $35,000 third place prizes this year were also bagged by Indian diaspora teenagers.

Amol Punjabi grabbed the First Place Medal of Distinction for basic research for developing a software which, could help drug makers develop new therapies for cancer and heart disease. He belongs to Marlborough in Massachusetts.

Maya Varma won the First Place Medal of Distinction for innovation of smartphone-based lung function analyzer. She is from Cupertino in California.

SSP president Maya Ajmera said that,  "they and the rest of the top winners of Intel STS (Science Talent Search) 2016 are using science and technology to help address the problems they see in the world and will be at the forefront of creating the solutions we need for the future."

The prizes were named in three categories basic research, innovation and global good. All Indian diaspora winners were in the research and innovation categories.

Meena Jagadeesan from Naperville, Illinois, grabbed the Second Place Medal of Distinction for basic research for her work in mathematics.

Milind Jagota won the Second Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation. He belongs to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Kunal Shroff, 17, won the Third Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research. He is from Virginia.

Kavya Ravichandran, 17, from Ohio, grabbed the Third Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation.

Nandini