Planet named after Bengaluru girl for efforts to clean froth from city lakes

Bengaluru: Caring for your environment is extremely important in today’s world struggling with pollution and climate change. But apart from ensuring protection of our well being, taking care of the ecosystem can also lead to recognition across the universe.

Bengaluru’s lakes have been plagued by froth forming on their surface, and a 12th standard student has gained rare recognition for her dedication to tackling this issue. Sahithi Pingali of the Inventure Academy now has a planet in the Milky Way named after her for helping clean Bengaluru’s lakes.

Sahithi developed an app to collect data on the froth generating on lakes and sent it to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). She made it on a list of 2000 finalists from all over the world and ending up among the top three percent. This achievement led to the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to name a planet after her.

Doing an internship at University of Michigan, Shaithi is still committed to cleaning polluted lakes in Bengaluru.