Sai Sriram, a student of Std. IX in Don Bosco Public School in Vijayawada, was selected as one of the 18 outstanding science wizards of the country and received an award from former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a function held in IIM Ahmedabad recently.
The boy's talent was spotted in “IGNITE 10”, a national competition organised by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) on the occasion of Children's Creativity and Innovation Day on October 15, which happens to be the birthday of Dr. Kalam.
To motivate
The objective of the NIF is to identify and recognise technological ideas and innovation among school children.
The contest was open for participation for students of Stds. I to XII and it registered 2,139 entries from 161districts of 29 states and union territories.
The projects submitted were on topics ranging from energy, environment, transport and general household utility items.
Dream come true
“I am really happy to have received the award from Dr. Abdul Kalam.
Now that my talent has been recognised at the national level, I feel more responsible,” said an elated Sriram.
Responding to an article inviting applications for participation in ‘IGNITE 10', Sriram thought hard for an innovative idea. Interestingly, fond memories of his great grandmother Kamala Devi came to his rescue and he knew what he would be working at.
Vivid images of his great granny almost ritually forgetting her spectacles, keys, bangles and other items flashed across his mind.
Sriram wasted no time in deciding that he would make a “Locater Beeper”, a device that would make it easy for anyone to locate things. His older brother in the U.S. did his bit by guiding him on how to arrange a prototype model of the device.
Stretching his creative competence, he made “Locater Beeper” fitted with transmitters and trans-receiver, LED and a sound device. When its remote is pressed, a sound is emitted from the device tagged to the ‘missing' article and the user can locate it. It took him a week to finish the project.
