Grabbing a total of six prizes this year, Ravindra Bharathi School has once again come out with flying colours during the recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Space Settlement Design Contest (NASA) held at San Diego, California.
A total of 1,526 students from across 20 countries have participated in the 32 International Space Development Conference where students presented hundreds of plans for space colonies. Some 30 students from Ravindra Bharathi School attended the conference, out of whom 17 students bagged six prizes for the projects such as ‘ouranious’, ‘nike’, ‘alis’, ‘gels’, ‘eternal’ and ‘dhruva’. While the team of ‘ouranious’ received the first prize, the other five projects stood second. Each team worked close to two months for the projects, collecting information from the Net, books and seeking the help of their seniors, teachers and parents. Application of aeroponics and geoponics, robotics and agriculture, conversion of carbon-dioxide into oxygen through treepods and using oxygen candles made ‘ouranious’ project score better than others, said T. Varun Kumar one of the team members. For B. Jagadeesh of ‘gels’ project, it was an opportunity to meet different scientists and share innovative ideas. Arun Agarwal of ‘nike’ team says, “We discovered many interesting topics while compiling the project.
Application of sixth and seventh sense technologies helped us navigate through various maps and other features that are similar to a mobile phone,” he added. Most of the students said that they were excited to meet former president of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and renowned astronaut Buzz Aldrin at the conference. “They inspired me to become an astronaut in the future. The five-day conference helped in grooming and made me more focused,” added K. Dilip Kumar, one of the participants. Dean of the school G.R. Vasantham and teachers appreciated the team for bringing glory to the school.