Rendezvous with the National Winners of vivo Ignite Science & Innovation Awards
Science and innovation are the growth engines of human civilisation. So, it’s only logical to drive the youth of every nation towards scientific endeavours. Keeping this in mind, tech giant vivo conducted the vivo Ignite Science & Innovation Awards with Hindustan Times as its knowledge partner. The Grand Finale of the programme was conducted on 3rd February. Meant for students of grades 8 to 12 all across the nation, it offered them with scientific tools while motivating them to create projects that will solve pressing social issues. From more than 1000 projects submitted in two categories, Concept and Prototype, the top 10 were chosen by a distinguished panel of jury members after a thorough screening. In each category, there is one National Grand Prize Winner and 4 National Winners. Amudhu S, Grade 11 and Arhaan Garg, Grade 12, are the National Grand Prize winners from Prototype and Concept categories respectively. The National Winners of the Prototype category were Ananditha Sashidar, Aditya Chopra, Yuvvan Talreja and Pranet Hiranandani. Their counterparts from the Concept category were Shailaja Bhatia, Aakansh Bansal, Navya Wadhwa and Raghav Sinha. Cash prizes worth 25,75,000 are up for grabs for the 10 champions.
While the toppers hogged the limelight in the Grand Finale, the National Winners were also basking in the glory of success. They poured their heart out about their journey through vivo Ignite and a lot more in a freewheeling chat with HT School.
Aditya, who earned the 3rd spot in the Prototype category for his project titled G-LED: Reusable LED Bulbs & Tubes with Replaceable LED Cartridge, drew inspiration for his idea from the logo of the programme. “It showed two hands holding a bulb together. For me, it symbolised sharing innovation for the betterment of humanity, something that became the crux of what I did,” he says. On the other hand, two other winners found their inspiration in the COVID-19 pandemic. Navya, the 4th place holder in the Concept category, who worked on the idea—Bloodice: Bluetooth-Enabled Blood Testing Device—was one among them. “My idea was ready for quite some time but I had no forum to display it, until I came across vivo Ignite that gave me the right kind of opportunity,” she says. Shailaja, the 2nd rank holder in the Concept category, was always concerned about the garbage disposal problem in Delhi. The pandemic only intensified the issue. “vivo Ignite was the right platform to share my solution,” says the young innovator whose project is Converting Mould to Gold (Garbage Disintegrator).
The projects submitted by the National Winners are not only innovative, but unique too and all of them are confident about how their ideas will contribute towards the larger good of the society. Take Ananditha for instance, the 2nd place holder in the Prototype category. Alarmingly increasing rates of road accidents in India motivated her to work on her project Driver Drowsiness Detection System to Prevent Road Accidents. She believes her project will make drivers alert whenever they feel sleepy. “It’s distressing to know that more than 20 percent of road accidents in India happen due to drivers falling asleep on the wheel. Hopefully my model can make a difference,” shares the science prodigy.
Another interesting project in the Prototype category is Valuable Trash – Using Advanced AI to Recycle & Upcycle Waste, created by 5th rank holder Pranet Hiranandani. This app-based project aims at reducing carbon footprint through garbage recycling. “My app helps in simple and easy handling of waste by a commoner on a daily basis,” he shares.
Shailaja’s project also revolves around garbage management, one of the crucial environment issues that bothers this budding scientist. “During a road trip with my parents, I mistook the Ghazipur landfill as a mountain. I was shocked to learn than more than 2000 tonnes of garbage were dumped at the site daily. That was the moment I knew I had to do something about it in my own, small way,” she says. With her focus set on tackling land pollution, Shailaja plans to work on water pollution too in the near future. Interestingly, she has developed the concept of a solar-powered portable composter.
The pressing problems of environment seem to bother majority of today’s youngsters in India. So, it’s no wonder that many award-winning projects are centred around this topic in vivo Ignite. Yuvaan, 4th rank holder in the Prototype category, is worried about environmental pollution. So, he has come with a project to mitigate air contamination. His project Detecting Air Pollution Levels Using Machine Learning on Plant Leaves is an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to detect air pollution using deep learning. It will combat the issue with the help of organic matters such as plant leaves. He said, “Through vivo Ignite, I have learnt technical and engineering skills, sharpened my programming lessons and gained valuable insights in project management. Overall, the competition has helped me develop a passion for learning and innovation in the field of robotics.”
Well, environment isn’t the only thing that got vivo champions thinking. They are equally bothered about other facets of life too. Health is one such area, where one of them delved into. Navya’s project in the Concept category revolves around a Bluetooth-enabled blood testing device for home. It is aimed to identify and diagnose infectious diseases such as Covid-19 at early stages. “People who are economically struggling often do not wish to visit blood labs due to hefty charges. Also, those who can afford to go also skip it for the fear of contracting infections. This results in prolonged illness and at times even death. I hope my device can come to the help of such people,” expressed the girl brimming with confidence. In the coming years, she wants to developing non-evasive procedures and cost-effective surgeries.
Animal welfare is another social concern that one of the vivo Ignite winners highlighted through his project titled ‘FWWA or Food and Water Wealth for Animals’. Aakansh, 3rd rank holder in the Concept category, designed it to locate starving animals and arrange proper food and water for them. “I see stray animals begging for food and water every day. Even if they do receive some, those items are often contaminated and eventually lead to their deaths. All these really moved me and eventually gave me the idea for FWWA,” shares the animal lover. Shifting from his current project, Aakansh wants to help fight cybercrimes someday.
In today’s world, natural disasters are on the rise due to the ongoing climate crisis. For Raghav, the 5th rank holder in the Concept category, this is a great cause of concern. So, he has conceptualised a robot that will help in the rescue operations in the aftermath of a disaster. Named Squirrel-based Rescue Robots for Remote Places & Natural Disasters, his device is designed to locate distressed people and map out rescue paths. However, what’s interesting about his project is the way it was conceived. “Squirrels, if you notice, can survive falling from great heights. I derived my inspiration from these miraculous animals by mimicking their unique talents into a robot,” said the budding innovator. He aspires to restore and conserve the marine ecosystem in the coming years.