8 students from Ludhiana make it to the state-level contest
A total of 76 students from the district had sent in their ideas under the programme; of these, 68 appeared at the district-level competition organised at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College in Ludhiana on Saturday
Ideas presented by eight students from Ludhiana schools in the 2023-24 session were selected for state-level competition under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme.
A flagship programme of the Centre’s department of science and technology (DST), it aims to motivate students in the age group of 10-15 years studying in Classes 6 to 10. A total of 76 students from the district had sent in their ideas under the programme. Of these, 68 appeared at the district-level competition organised at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College on Saturday.
Agampreet Kaur, a student of Saheed S Harbhajan Singh Government High School, Chachrari, who developed a model of a hybrid agriculture dryer and Arpit Kapoor of DAV Public School, who came up with an idea of green flush, were chosen to present their ideas at the state-level.
Sacchi Jain of Kundan Vidya Mandir School developed terra treads sustainable footwear, Harjot Kaur of Government High School, Kot Mangal Singh, came up with a motorbike that runs without petrol and Nayam Jindal of Sat Paul Mittal School developed a smart waste separator.
Other students who made it to the state level included Harsukhmandeep Singh Bedi of Drishti Dr RC Jain Public School who developed a home automation robot, Arnav Sharma of Atam Public School who worked on a solar robotic seeder planter and Goransh Mittal from BVM Senior Secondary School who came up with an idea of a pre alarming tremor detector and lives saviour.
A few other ideas which did not make it to the state level, but were innovative enough included a smart school bag with LCD for weight limit notification by Harshveer Singh of BCM School, Shastri Nagar. “These bags have integrated load cells at the base which constantly measure the weight of the contents and the system alerts the user when the bag exceeds a predetermined weight,” he said, adding that the idea behind this innovation was to promote proper posture and reduce strain.
Another such idea included a “firefighting bot” by Mayank Verma of BVM School, Kitchlu Nagar. “These robots can be deployed in diverse settings from urban and industrial environments to wildland areas and have enhanced quality control, are quite economical and ensure safety. I am also working on developing an aerial bot based on a drone system,” he mentioned.
Drishti Arora of DAV Public School, Pakhowal Road, developed a website called “Xplorehike”, which is a portfolio builder and opportunity tracker. “Other websites and applications help one get a job and are designed for a certain age group, but the website which I have designed caters to the students from class 6 onwards. One can register on this website and hone their skills, they can look for various opportunities provided by the government institutions where seven-day or 10-day training is provided to the school and college students and helps build their portfolio,” she said.
City student designs model to prevent Buddha Nullah from overflowing
To prevent Buddha Nullah from overflowing, Harsh Jain, a Class 11 student of DPS Public School, has designed an innovative model. It was presented at Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme, which is one of the flagship programmes of Centre’s department of science & technology (DST) at INSPIRE - MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge), being executed by DST with National Innovation Foundation – India (NIF) at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College.
Last year, the overflow caused significant damage in the major areas of the city, including the destruction of lakhs worth of cloth in his father’s factory basement. Inspired by these events, the student developed a manhole and water level detector system to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The model called “Manhole and water level detector” features an alarm that triggers when the water in the nullah or any manhole reaches a certain level. This system allows for the control and monitoring of all manholes and critical locations from a central point, helping to manage potential overflows and prevent waterlogging on streets.