Be it reporting civic issues or parents tracking their child’s school bus, 14-year old S. Arjun believes that with a smartphone and an app, life can be a lot simpler, and importantly, more efficient.
This Children’s Day, he will be one of the students to receive the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in New Delhi instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD).
“A few years back, my parents got worried when it took me time to return home on a rainy evening. That is how the idea for the Ez School Bus Locator Android app came about,” he said. He developed it using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology App Inventor tool, and has been using it since, he said.
A class IX student of Velammal Vidhyashram, Surapet, he won the first prize in the (K-8 category) in the 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) App Inventor Contest and shared the first place in MIT’s App Inventor Bug Finding contest.
“I am excited about the award and meeting the other winners at Rashtrapati Bhavan,” said Arjun.
Sources in the Social Welfare Department said S. Vinod Kannan, also from the State, will be receiving the award.
