T Ariharan, a 19 year old inventor has brought laurels to the city after one of his inventions was selected as 'Best Invention of Tamil Nadu' under state category by International Society for Scientific Research and Development (ISSRD) and selected as one of the best eleven ideas of India by Falling Walls lab, a German based international competition.
A student of Electronics and Communication Engineering at a private college in Chennai, Ariharan is involved in researches that were recognised by the Education Ministry of Tamil Nadu. As an inventor, Ariharan works on designing inventions that could become solutions for problems in the fields of technology, community health, environment, agriculture, energy generation and waste management.
Starting his research career at the age of 16 as a higher secondary student, Ariharan shaped his innovative ideas while training with private organisations in electronics.After being identified by Agni's Ignite, a national level science innovation competition in the city, he was placed first in the 42nd Jawaharlal Nehru state level science exhibition conducted by Education ministry of Tamil Nadu in 2014.
Ariharan hails from a humble family background from Tiruppur and completed his schooling in a government school. “Electronics was my field of interest from childhood and being a son of television mechanic, I learnt things practically from my father and I eagerly assisted him during my free time. I started participating in the science exhibition as an elementary school student,” said Ariharan.
Ariharan is one of the finalists of first ever science reality TV show called “Ezham Arivu” (Seventh sense) which was conducted by Doordarshan . He was selected as one among the 12 youth delegates to represent India at South Asian Youth Summit- 2017 hosted by International Youth Committee (IYC) in association with the Government of India.
“After finishing school, I cleared the NATA entrance examination and joined B Arch in my native place due to personal issues. My project proposals with the background of electronics were rejected by almost all the science conferences and expos, as my graduation major was architecture. Soon I realised that it was time to take decision for life and so I discontinued my journey as an architect with a heavy heart. That was the toughest period of my life but I am sure it was those puzzling days that shaped me for what I am today. I believed in myself and joined engineering the very next year,” he added.
When people are focused about the negative effects of social networking, he grabbed opportunities from Facebook pages and made contacts with people to learn about scientific inventions. He has participated in many exhibitions and got an opportunity to explain about his project to former President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam as a school student.
“Carbon monoxide Inhibiting Device (CID) project was selected as the best Invention of Tamil Nadu under state category by ISSRD (International Society for Scientific Research and Development). This invention was recognised as one of the instant solutions for air pollution caused by automobiles in many national and international innovation conferences,” he explains.
He is currently working on security based startup with his team named 'vyuga'. He says humbly, “ I am nothing without my team and I want to thank my team members Dr. Karthikeyan R, Achutha, Bincy Emagline, Harini, Hemantha Rajan, Jaya Karthika, Karan E, Karthick Charan, Ramya and Vishnu”
Behind every successful person, there is a mentor who inspires and encourages them along the way. Ariharan considers Dr. Amrutha Sachein, director, Nehru School of Architecture as his mentor who guided him in the right path during his troubled times and Agnishwar Jayaprakash, an international swimmer turned entrepreneur as his pillar of strength who recognised and financially helped him.
He has taken the initiative to create awareness and give exposure on practical learning rather than theoretical methods through training programmes of his own.
“Education is all about learning, not studying. Lakhs of graduates are struggling without employment when it comes to engineering. It is only because of lack of practical knowledge on their respective cores. But what many institutions practise is they give less importance to Science especially Physics, as they weigh less cut off marks in board exams.”
He thinks that the real essence of learning is not memorising facts but in understanding them and so their startup is aimed to make learning “fun”.
