Schoolchildren come up with out-of-the-box solutions at Science Congress
Bengaluru: With several out-of-the-box concepts—extraction of fuel from plastic, solar-powered e-bicycles for farmers, smart spoons for people suffering from Parkinson’s, or ‘Alpha armour’ suits for the armed forces and cultivation of one variety of mushroom to replace animal leather—budding scientists, all school children from across the country, took the limelight at the 107th edition of Indian Science Congress here.
Papers presented by them at the Children Science Congress, held as part of the Indian Science Congress, mirrored innovative methods to tackle a myriad problems—from management of household waste to tips on conservation of water, use of khadi agrobags instead of plastic, to use of mobile apps for irrigation of fields and briquettes as an alternative source of energy.
For example, Divesh Deepak and Akhilesh Thakur of Trinity Public School, Banjar, Himachal Pradesh, addressed the burgeoning problem of disposal of plastic and how conversion of plastic into an alternative energy source could address two problems—management of plastic waste and an alternative fuel for local use.
“Pyrolysis is a process which involves thermo chemical decomposition of organic matter at a high temperature (above 370 degrees Celsius) in the absence of oxygen gas. This project study ensures the most efficient and widely used method of converting plastic to fuel,” they reported in their paper presented at the event.
Another duo, Om Prakash Pani and Sujal Lenka of ODM Public School, KIIT, Patia-Bhubaneswar, Odisha, spoke about their ‘Alpha armour suit’ for the armed forces—complete with an exoskeleton fitted with springs to boost the calf muscles, thus increasing speed and agility, and shoes fitted with piezoelectric cells to help charge all components of the suit and a helmet fitted with night vision thermal sensors and infrared sensors.
“The suit will be bullet-proof for now and with further advancements the suit has the potential to become blast-proof and would have rocket boosters to let the soldier fly short distances or to take super leaps,” states their paper.
While a variety of new technologies were proposed for the health sector, a ‘smart spoon’—a reliable and affordable device for those suffering from trembling hands, in particular Parkinson’s disease, employing sensors and microcontrollers and real-time technologies, seemed extraordinary. Nishita Aggarwal and Sanya Sagar of Saupin’s School, Chandigarh, explained in their paper, “The smart spoon works on the principle of ‘active cancellation’ in which an embedded computer captures motion signals detected by sensors, identifies the user’s tremor and then moves the spoon in the opposite direction of that tremor.”
At the inaugural of the Children’s Science Congress, thousands of school children were egged on to pursue a career in science by Nobel laureate Dr Ada Yonath of Israel and Prof C N R Rao. While Dr Yonath said she started working on science at the age of five, trying to measure the height of her balcony, and narrated how the late renowned scientist Dr G N Ramachandran played a role in her award-winning research effort. Prof Rao listed examples of a number of renowned scientists, including Sir C V Raman (who took to research at the age of 16), to inspire children to take to up scientific research.
