Newspaper reports of fishermen getting lost at sea set a young mind from Chennai thinking on how he could bring about a solution for the same to ensure their safety, and the FishErmen Lifeline Terminal (FELT) was then conceived.
These handheld GPS devices for fishermen at sea have resulted in Advay Ramesh, a 14-year-old student from National Public School, win the Google Science Fair Community Impact Award 2016.
His project was chosen from among thousands of entries from school students across the world as a part of the Google Science Fair.
Handheld device
“I wrote the application for a handheld device that will help fishermen at sea identify an inner and outer boundary based on a GPS system. Since the application tracks them, it will send them alerts if they cross the International Maritime boundary line (IMBL),” explained the class 10 student.
Advay also said that the application will have a feature where catchment records can be stored. “While this will also help fishermen record the presence of a certain catch at specific locations, it will also be of immense help to researchers,” he said and added that linking the application to the ISRO’s Independent Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) can help a broadcast alert system which will give weather updates. “Instead of the application working on a mobile, it has to be used on a specific handheld device designed to withstand the roughness of sea,” he said.
Advay has been awarded $1,000 in an educational scholarship and a year-long mentorship from a Google Science Fair Partner Organisation.
‘I hope to be an engineer who innovates with technology in
the future’
