Better India: First India International Science Festival showcases creativity of the youth
Optometry powered by a cell phone, an app that allows touch-free interaction with computers, biodegradable plastic, a jacket that helps visually-impaired people move, and jaggery chocolates high on haemoglobin content that can be eaten by diabetic people too. These are just a tiny fraction of the sea of projects that were exhibited at the first India International Science Festival (IISF), a nationwide science exhibition that was organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Aditya Khant from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai who came up with Airtouch, an application that allows for 'touch-free, sensor-independent input for human-computer interaction'. Khant, a student of 12th standard, does not even study computer science in school, and had an exam on Monday. "I build a simpler prototype when I was in the 9th standard in which one could play drums just by hovering your hand over the device.I have been developing that ever since; my mother has helped me with the aesthetics," he says. He plans to be an entrepreneur.
"Delhi-based Shreyas Kapoor of Modern School, Barakhamba, built an app that enables one to accurately find one's eyesight disorder and apply for a lens accordingly. "An aberrometer (the instrument that determines the power of the lenses a person needs) costs about Rs 13,000. In villages, people are blind because of that. I made an app in which a figure will appear on the screen. A myopic person will see it as '8', while a normal person as '5'," he says. He adds that his school 'does not know that I exist', and that he met his mentor, MIT student Kshitij Marwah at a convention sometime ago. He plans to research further on his app, imbibe artificial intelligence in it, and further research on AI in the future.
Aditya and Shreyas are both students in a team of 12 students which will represent India in the next leg of the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) to be held in Arizona next year. IRIS is a nationwide initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Intel Education. The winning team will have a planet named after him or her and will have their graduation funded.
On the other hand is Ananya from Deeksha Vidya Mandir from Kadur. Deeply hurt by the death of their pet cow who chewed on plastic, she decided to make biodegradable plastic out of cornflour or potato starch. "I worked on it for six to seven months," said the 10th standard student, adding that she wants to be a doctor, without leaving her love for experimenting with innovations like these.
Ananya is the silver award winner of Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), a nationwide science awards programme organised by DST. The gold was clinched by Oza Alay Kumar from Mehsana who came up with an artificial tree model which will turn carbon monoxide into oxygen, and a wind tunnel which cleans the polluted air with solar energy. Prithvi Raj from Jamtara was given the bronze for inventing a jacket with a radio sensor, arel and solar plates that help the visually-impaired to walk safely on the roads.
This is the first time that the ministry has come up with a nationwide science exhibition, and in the process has included IRIS and INSPIRE, two reputed science fairs. The initiative is also helped by Vijnana Bharati, a not-for-profit organisation working for science popularisation
"We wish for society to understand science better, and with an exhibition of such a huge scale, we hope that we create an environment in which people will be attracted to science. We have a lot of theoretical ideas, but we need better experiments in this country," said Jayant Sahasbuddhe, Organising Secretary at Vijnana Bharati. The exhibition, which ended Monday, saw an attendance of two lakh, with children presenting 230-plus research papers besides hosting five workshops for over 10,000 delegates as well as the general public.
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