25 Students Set to Participate in Global Science and Engineering Contest

A group of 25 school students from different parts of the country is all set to go to the US to compete in a global science and engineering competition organised by Intel. As many as 1800 young innovators from 78 countries would be at the meet competing for about four million dollars in awards.

The children have been selected at the end of several rounds of rigorous screening under a public-private partnership programme called Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science put together by the Department of Science, Indo US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) and Intel. The programme seeks to nurture science and scientific research amongst young innovators by recognising and rewarding outstanding projects. Between themselves, the students would present 20 projects.

Every year, students are required to send in their entries in August and after thorough scrutiny by a scientific review committee (SRC), the best entries are shortlisted for a national level competition in December. The winners of this go on to represent India at the Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held at Phoenix in Arizona from May 12 to 17.

The projects selected include a new method to screen Amblyopia. Also known as a lazy eye it causes one eye to slowly lose vision leading to partial blindness. Detecting it before the age of eight is crucial as only then treatment could help in complete recovery. However, amblyopia detection is difficult in pre-verbal children as they can be uncooperative and cannot respond to regular visual acuity tests. Vrishab Krishna and Vishwesh Krishna from National Public School,  Bengaluru, have come out with an IT-based solution.

Another project developed by Rishu Kumar of Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya at Bettiah in Bihar seeks to leverage advantages of public integration using digital technology in form of an Android application to provide for more efficient and effective waste management system. Called Swara, it will provide location-based waste collection services to enterprises on request and facilitate central monitoring of waste management processes via data collected through the application.

Aryaman Trivedi and Stuti Lohani of Amity International School, Noida, will make a presentation on a new approach to harness energy from random vibrations using what is called triboelectric effect; Richard Joseph and Manya M. Kumar of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kochi, on a suction bait trap to protect plants from melon fruit fly; and Yashish Mohnot, and Ayush Shah of Pace Junior College, Mumbai, on a virtual reality interfacing unit they have developed to provide low cost, personalised and supplemental physiotherapy services to patients suffering from cervical spine problems.

Other students who will participate in the global contest from India are: Prerna Magon of Police DAV Public School, Jalandhar; Sagnik Anupam of Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram; Sayli Bande of JSS Public School, Bengaluru; Richik Vivek Sen of Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj; Mohammed Suhail C S of The Learning Centre, Mangalore; Aditya Radhakrishnan of Suguna PIP School, Coimbatore; Raghav Puri, Delhi Public School, Dwarka;

Sidharth Jain of Jamnabhai Narsee International School, Mumbai; Nikiya Shamsher of Greenwood High International School, Bengaluru; Rutik Thorat of DAV Public School, Mumbai;  M.Suneetha Prabhu of SDM English Medium School, Belthangadi, Dakshina Kannada; Sanjeev Hota, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ganeshkind, Pune; Rajat Lohan, Delhi Public School, Hapur; N.Anusha of St. Philomena Aided High School, Puttur, Karnataka; Aranyo Ray of Auxilium Convent School, Kolkatta, and Anantharaman Iyer of National Public School, Bengaluru. (India Science Wire)

By Sunderarajan Padmanabhan

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