Intel fair discovers young Indian talent

Monday, 13 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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CHENNAI: For 17-year-old G. Raghavendra from Chennai, the Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair was an opportunity knocking on the door. His innovative use of the cell phone to trigger an alarm system took him easily into the finals of the national talent search competition along with 15 others. Riddhiman Yadav and Mihir Tandon of Modern School, New Delhi, also made their mark with a low cost artificial limb that enables people without arms to drive. They were selected from among 225 participants at the three-day fair, which was judged Sunday at the Anna University here. Chairman of governing council of physical research laboratory U.R. Rao gave away the prizes, which were high-end computers. "Follow up on your dreams," was the advice he gave the young scientists, who go for the finals to be held in Mumbai. Raghav's prototype made him the only youngster from Chennai to reach the finals. A television news story months ago triggered his interest in devising something that could be used to raise an alarm. Raghav watched the story of a school attack by Chechen rebels that left more than 300 dead. Raghav, the son of an Indian Air Force officer, is a student of the SBOA School. His innovation involves wiring a cell phone to two switches with two separate outputs to the device. One of the outputs would be for a missed call-driven impulse and the other for SMS. The system has a base mobile phone and mobile-to-mobile technology already in use is modified at a nominal cost of about 600. "When terrorists can use cell phones as detonating devices and remote control, I thought the same technology could be used as easily to activate home appliances." "My teachers, especially my physics teacher helped me to do the project and my mom helped with the presentation." Raghav hopes to have a foolproof warning system that could give the upper hand to people against terrorists. The first eight in the final list, all Class 9-12 students, get to participate in the May 2005 Intel International Science Fair in the US.
Source: IANS