Winning Ideas

Isha Vidhya’s students excelled in the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Awards MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) organized by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, with eleven of our students among 733 winners across Tamil Nadu. Read about the genesis and applications of some of the winning ideas in this blog.

When we announced Isha Vidhya’s participation in the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Awards MANAK (Million Minds Augmenting National Aspirations and Knowledge) by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, over 300 of our students submitted their ideas. We were allowed to submit five ideas per school and we presented a total of 44 ideas.

Eleven of our students were among 733 winners across Tamil Nadu, and each of their ideas skilfully utilizes what they have learned at school and aims to enhance our everyday lives.

Read about some of the winning ideas that germinated in the mind of a rural child with limited exposure and access to the digital world.

“A hospital visit triggered this idea.”

Sakthi felt an urgent need to find a solution to educate patients about correctly consuming medicines, such as the number of doses to take and when to take them. Her idea is to have a QR code on every medicine pack that is linked to an app providing all the necessary information about the medicine in all Indian languages. It will also include dietary tips and the benefits of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine.

Sakthi is utilizing her award of Rs.10,000 to further develop her project.

“I decided to find a way by using the micro:bit learning in the Atal Tinkering Lab to help blind people.”

While playing a board game, Nabina noticed her blind friend struggling to read the number on the dice. So she created a cost-effective musical dice programmed in micro:bit that includes an inbuilt motion sensor and music block. The device is housed in a wooden box and produces a corresponding sound when shaken, indicating a randomly selected number.

Nabina utilized some of her prize money to create the prototype and used the rest to purchase two goats to support her educational expenses.

“I am passionate about improving mental health and helping students.”

Abijesh was inspired by wearable technology that monitors physical health to create his Heart Beat Monitor. This watch monitors the wearer’s heartbeat and is connected to other cell phones via GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication). If a student’s heart and pulse rate rises due to stress or depression, their family is immediately alerted on their phone and they can connect with the student to prevent a possible tragedy.

Abijesh is utilizing his cash award to purchase hardware to create a prototype.

“I like science and wanted to find a solution to save water.”

Karthikeyan’s idea for water purification involves using ubiquitous plastic bottles layered with a filter consisting of rocks, pebbles, sand, fine sand, charcoal, and cotton. This filtration system purifies polluted water, making it safe for non-potable uses such as watering plants.

Karthikeyan received a cash award from the government and an award from his school, which he partly utilized to create a prototype. He has saved the balance.

“A laptop user’s struggle on a train journey stimulated this idea.”

Yuga Gayathri noticed that using a laptop in public places can be challenging. Her idea involves incorporating foldable legs made of light aluminium into the laptop bag. This enables the laptop bag to be converted into a counter for outdoor laptop use. She plans to utilize her cash award for furthering her higher education.

“Ticketless travel on buses and enormous time spent checking tickets gave me this idea.”

Satyaki’s idea involves installing sensors at the entrance and exit doors of buses. When a passenger boards the bus, they pay their fare through a mechanism similar to a ticket-vending machine. The passenger receives a barcoded ticket that will allow them to exit the bus at their destination by scanning the ticket at the door.

In addition to utilizing his cash award to develop his idea further, Satyaki also wants to help his juniors with his win.