Poor sense of smell is sometimes a ‘superpower,’ teen says

A 10th-grader explores the upsides of chronic sinusitis, including building a ‘bionic nose’ that earned science-fair recognition.

UW Medicine

At UW Medical Center – Montlake, where he receives care, Oliver Cho displays his invention.

Meet Oliver Cho, 16. He’s an upbeat 10th grader in Bellevue, Washington. He also happens to be among the roughly 2% of U.S. children who live with chronic sinusitis, a condition driven by persistent inflammation of the sinus lining. Over time, it has stolen most of his sense of smell.  

“Preschool to now, my smelling ability has been pretty bad,” he says. “The most distinct (smell) memory I have is of my school bus in preschool.”  

When he was in fourth grade, his parents recognized that sinus blockage was undermining Oliver’s sleep. Treatments began to reduce the inflamed tissue. Medicated rinses and steroids provided some benefit, but he ultimately underwent surgery in 2024 to remove polyps and open the sinuses.  

“I sleep better now, and it did help a bit with the smelling,” Oliver said. “I took a smell test recently and I got a 21 out of 40.”  

“The procedure’s goal is to open those passageways so we can better control the inflammation and allow for medications to reach the areas that matter most,” said Dr. Aria Jafari, Oliver’s surgeon at UW Medicine in neighboring Seattle. “That also gives odorant molecules a better chance to interact with the olfactory lining and signal to the brain.” 

Unfortunately, Jafari added, the development of sinus polyps signals a chronic condition: “If you have polyps, it's usually something that lives with you forever.” 

Anyone could lament such a prognosis. But if there is a picture of someone making lemonade from lemons, Oliver would be in the frame. He chooses to see upsides of his condition, like being unable to smell the purportedly rank wrestling room where he and his high-school teammates work out. Another time, during a mission trip abroad, he was happily immune to the skanky bathrooms that made his travel mates cringe.  

“My inability to smell — sometimes it feels kind of like a superpower,” he said. 

Impetus for a ‘bionic nose’ 

During a family dinner last year, his mom mentioned that an older relative used a hearing aid. She suggested there should be a smelling aid for noses that don’t work well.  

Oliver sparked with an idea: Build a bionic nose.  

“It's pretty obvious to tell whether, like, an apple has gone bad: It's brown, it's mushy,” he said. “But the thing with meat is that it's already kind of mushy and kind of brown. So most people rely on their sense of smell. But I don't have that, so I could accidentally end up eating

a bad piece of meat. That’s what this device would prevent.”  

Oliver worked with his dad, a software engineer, to identify the sensors that would detect the methane and ammonia gases emitted by spoiling meat. They connected hardware and developed a software model to capture, quantify and display those gas levels.  

Using ground beef from a local market, Oliver conducted an experiment. Samples sat in jars in three locations at home: the fridge, the garage, and “inside the house, stuffed in a corner,” he said. 

For 11 days, he unscrewed lids and held the sensors above the samples. In parallel he probed the samples’ pH levels. His mom kindly offered the comparative sniff-test rating.  

“I think that was the funniest part. We had six containers of meat, so she had to smell the samples 66 times. The first few days were alright, but by the end, even I could tell, wow, this, this is horrible,” Oliver recounted, laughing.  

In March he entered the invention in the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair and was recognized with an “Inspiring Excellence” award. The follow-up statewide competition earned Oliver an honorable mention award. 

Fruitful recovery of a smell memory 

“My state right now is that I can smell better on some days and not very well on others,” Oliver said. “The most interesting thing I've smelled recently was a banana. I remember peeling the banana and thinking, what the heck? This smells like something.” 

Jafari, sitting across from Oliver and his mom in a hospital café, said the smells we recognize are tied to our memories. 

“Odors that are most perceptible are ones linked to past experiences,” he said. “Your brain helps fill in the gaps, even when the signal is faint. New smells can be harder to interpret.” 

Oliver went quiet for a moment, then looked at his mom.  

“When I was a kid, I would always eat this one Korean snack, called Banana Kick,” he said. “Now I think that when I smelled the banana, my brain was trying to remember that snack.” 

Dr. Aria Jafari, surgeon and otolaryngologist with UW Medicine in Seattle