Smart cervical collar, assistive spectacles for the deaf with voice-to-text conversion and display feature, shock absorbing stretcher. These are among 21 ideas that have been selected for the IGNITE 2018 awards by the Ahmedabad-based National Innovation Foundation (NIF).
The award, instituted in the memory of APJ Abdul Kalam, attracted 90,000 entries from students from practically all the districts in the country. A total of 21 ideas and innovations of 31 students have been selected for the award. Former President Pranab Mukherjee will give away the awards on November 17.
Arushi Tandon from Delhi Public School, Kolkata has been awarded for suggesting an idea of developing a low-cost bed with detachable wheel chair. “I saw my grandmother suffering after she fell down in washroom. I first thought of a sort of roller coaster chair for her on which she can sit and go around. Later I thought of a bed with detachable wheel chair. This can fit in the bed as well as can slide over the commode seat,” said Arushi while speaking with India Science Wire.
Most children came up with innovative ideas by observing their family members, relatives or neighbors face difficulty in carrying on with day-to-day activities for some reason or the other. They felt the need to help them and mitigate their sufferings.
" Rahul Biswal from DAV Public School, Odisha has been awarded for ideating a visually challenged friendly navigation facilitation system. "
A Bamboo basket weaving machine is an example of such observation. Sumit Murari, who gave this idea, is a student of eleventh grade student from Bokaro. He said he used to live in Bihar and used to labourers working day and night to weave bamboo baskets. “I wanted to do something for them as they could weave just 2-3 baskets per day. My idea is to support them with this machine so that they can work efficiently and more productively,” said Sumit.
The idea of a porter payment calculating device has been suggested by four students. “Every time we travel by train we face this problem. People have to bargain a lot with porters. If porters have a device that can give details like size of the luggage, distance, day or night time and the fare could be calculated easily, then there would be no problem,” said A J Surya, a member of the student group.
Rahul Biswal from DAV Public School, Odisha has been awarded for ideating a visually challenged friendly navigation facilitation system. He said that his idea is to make a spectacle like device that would vibrate when any obstacle comes in front of a visually challenged person.
NIF organizes the national competition every year to promote creativity and originality among children for children up to class 12 or those out of school up to the age of 17. (India Science Wire)
