Toppers of vivo Ignite Science & Innovation Awards announced: A journey through their brilliant minds
With the sole objective of inspiring research, innovation and creativity in today’s generation, smartphone giant vivo with Hindustan Times as their knowledge partner conducted the much-anticipated Grand Finale of vivo Ignite Science & Innovation Awards on 3rd February. The contest offered school students with scientific tools and encouraged them to make projects that will resolve pertinent social concerns. vivo Ignite was meant for all Indian students of grades 8 to 12 and was conducted in three stages. It received more than 1000 submissions in the categories Concept and Prototype. From them, the top 25 submissions were chosen for the final round. They were evaluated by a distinguished panel of jury comprising of educationists and industry experts. Out of the 25 finalists, the National Grand Prize Winners were 12th grader Arhaan Garg from the concept category and grade 11 student Amudhu S from the prototype category. Here is a sneak peek into the minds of these prodigies.
Arhaan Garg: Winner (Concept)
This young innovator, who is currently in his final year of school, has been participating in similar programmes like the vivo Ignite since the last 5 years. “Just prior to this, I took part in World Robot Olympiad (WRO International). Before that, I was also part of the IRIS World Fair conducted by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India,” he shares. Apart from these two, Arhaan has also participated in the First Lego League Internationals in Hungary in 2018 as well as Shing-Tang Yau Science Awards a few years back. In the vivo Ignite Science & Innovation Awards, he earned the top spot for his project in the Concept category, titled Early Detection of Vocal Disorders using Voice Analysis & Machine Learning. Arhaan’s concept aims to help in the early detection of vocal ailments such as laryngeal cancer and dysphonia, while also reducing their medical costs and underlying trauma. Arhaan will be awarded with a cash prize worth INR 4 lakh for the concept.
For this science prodigy, vivo Ignite was quite different from the other competitions that he had participated in, earlier. “To figure out how a project can be implemented not just in theory but the real world and use it to solve one or few of the world’s major problems takes a lot out of you, both in terms of time and effort. That has been the biggest learning experience for me this programme,” says the aspiring AI expert.
Arhaan had his moments of challenge too in vivo Ignite. The most challenging moment for Arhaan during the programme was when he missed presenting one of the slides in front of the jury in the Finale. “I instantly hit the panic button. But seeing the judges engrossed, I quickly did the damage control and went back to the slide, explaining to them what I had missed,” shares the 12th grader, now basking in the glory of his success. Additionally, he had to make special efforts for the creative representation of his concept. “That was a little difficult for me,” he says candidly.
Arhaan was fascinated by the field of robotics since his middle school days. “Building robots started off as a hobby but now is taking the shape of a career,” he says. His acumen for AI, along with a passion for medical innovation, motivated this vivo winner to come up with an idea that combines health with technology.
“In robotics, the ideation part is crucial. The idea got a shape when I interacted with both medical experts and patients from around the world,” says Arhaan.
With already a couple of patents to his name including one for an app that helps detect pulmonary diseases at an early stage, he believes that the power today is in the hands of AI. “It has the scope to unravel all kinds of pressing social issues. I want to explore it further and help in making the world a better place,” signs off Arhaan.
Amudhu S: Winner (Prototype)
Amudhu started his journey in the field of innovation through vivo Ignite. “I had an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I had to be both creative and innovative, something I hadn't done before. I constantly had to think out of the box,” says this grade 11 student. He also adds how this competition lent him valuable life skills, not just scientific ones. "For me, the best part was that all of us got to see each other’s projects during the Grand Finale and derive inspiration out of them. One doesn’t always get to meet people with similar interests. So that was a bonus,” shares the calm teenager, beaming with happiness. The project idea that earned him the top spot in the Prototype category was titled MARIMO – Eco-friendly Mechanism to Clean Oil Spills. He will receive a cash prize of INR 5 lakh for the project.
In 2017, Amudhu’s hometown Ennore faced a massive oil spill disaster when two ships collided in the Indian Ocean along the Chennai shore and 250 million tonnes of oil spilled onto the sea. This got him thinking and he started trying out various methods to clean up oil spills. During one of the experiments, he accidentally dropped a pen’s spring into a jar containing oil and water. When he tried to recover the spring, he saw only oil coming out of it with no trace of water. This is when the award-winning idea struck him, and the rest is of course history!
For this 11th grader, his most challenging moment in the programme came when he had to convert his idea into a prototype. “I had to seek a lot of external help and I am thankful to everyone who supported me through it. From bringing in the raw materials to coming up with a unique design, the entire process was tedious, but worth it,” shares the champion.
In the next 5 years, Amudhu sees himself finding solutions to various traffic-related issues. “I also have some energy conservation ideas in mind that I would like to implement in the real world,” adds the budding innovator who has a knack for martial arts too. In fact, he has a black belt in taekwondo. “vivo Ignite was a challenging experience for me. But what’s life without challenges? In fact, this programme was a great stepping stone to advance my career,” shares Amudhu.