Air Force School Hebbal, Bengaluru, again won the coveted ‘Teenovator of the Year’ first prize at the national-level competition for innovation by students, at Manipal University here on Saturday.
They take home a prize money of Rs. 5 lakh. They had clinched the top prize in 2013 as well. Garden High International School, Kolkata, came second and bagged a prize money of Rs. 3 lakh. Bharatiya Jain Sanghatan Junior College, Pune, finished third and earned a prize money of Rs. 1 lakh. Consolation prizes of Rs. 50,000 each went to St. Columba's School, Delhi, and Iqbalia International School, Hyderabad.
Teenovators is a national-level platform provided by Manipal University, with support from INK, to young minds in schools across the country to showcase their creative and innovative skills. Eight of the best teams are brought to Manipal University for the final round following a screening process spread over a few months. This year, 400 schools participated and eight were selected for the grand finale.
The finalists exhibited their projects at the Innovation Centre in Manipal Institute of Technology. Five judges and three mentors grilled the participants about their projects. The judges said it was rare to see innovations of such high standard. They lauded Manipal University for providing a platform for the youngsters to innovate and exhibit their skills.
The Bengaluru school won the first prize in 2013 for their project on how to maximize life of a mobile battery while in use. Their project called “Cloneator” clones the action of its master and works on the principle of one robot cloning another control robot. With their Cloneator, their aim is to replace humans with robots in risky jobs.
Garden High International School, Kolkata’s project called ‘Piezoelectric power generation in trains’ displayed how to generate sufficient power to light up the train compartments. The piezoelectric materials are fixed in the shock absorbers and coupling dampers of a train and converting the electric signals thus produced by running trains.
The second runner-up, Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana Jr College, Pune, studied plant growth using electromagnetic waves. The students conducted a study on this subject and came out with certain recommendations of controlling crop growth with electromagnetism.
The teams winning consolation prizes were St. Columba's School, Delhi, for their project “Micro-controlled Farming Solution” and Iqbalia International School, Hyderabad, for their project “Addressing iron deficiency among women.”
Vinod Bhat, Vice-Chancellor, Manipal University, Lakshmi Pratury, founder and CEO, INK, Kiran Datar, former adviser, National Knowledge Commission, Maulishree Agrahari, CEO, ICT Skills Development Society, and Anand Gandhi, filmmaker, were present at the prize distribution function.
