Chennai lad gets recognition in World's Largest Science Competition
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 17 May 2011, 01:06 IST   |    14 Comments
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Chennai lad gets recognition in World's Largest Science Competition
Bangalore: It was raining awards for the young 9 member contingent of India at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. It was a remarkable moment for India, when the students stood out be the country's brightest students in the world's largest high school science research competition that the global chip maker had conducted. The Intel ISEF 2011 is a program called the 'Society for Science and the Public' which was conducted in Los Angeles with over 1,500 high school students participating from 443 affiliate fairs in 65 countries, regions and territories.The competition helps students share ideas, showcase cutting-edge research and inventions, and compete for more than $4 million in awards. The Indian contingent to Intel ISEF 2011 consisted of Akansha Verma and Abhishek Khanna (New Delhi), Raghavendra Ramachanderan (Chennai), Manosij Ghosh Dastidar (Kolkata), Hetal Vaishnav and Ankur Vaishnav (Rajkot), Diksha Gupta (New Delhi), Pramoda N.V. and Bhargava C.S. (Puttur) who came from different parts of the country. The nine students presented their ideas on different categories that they researched on. Starting from An eco-friendly antifungal agent, Drug Synthesis, extension of Stanley's theorem to Recycling Rexine waste, a naturally growing weed as effective pest controller and to natural inks that was produced from Fruits of Terminalia chebula. Raghavendra Ramachanderan, the young lad from St. John's International Residential School, Chennai won the best category award in the field of Chemistry for his research on Drug Synthesis: Braving Legendary Challenges. Raghavendra who was always fascinated by Organic synthesis decided to explore the chemical reactions of 3 drug synthesis when put together (Organic synthesis involves a construction of drugs or substances by combining them with carbon bonds). He won the highest award among the nine by bagging the $5000 cash prize. After his 12th, Raghavendra wants to pursue BSC in Chemistry and continue in the field of Research. If Raghavendra explored chemicals, Manosij Ghosh Dastidar of South Point School, Kolkata baffled people with his numbers. Manosij presented his paper on an extension of Stanley's theorem related to partitions of positive integers. He got this idea while he was learning the theorem in his class. He won the 2nd place Grand Award in the field of Mathematical Sciences. After the mathematics brain child, it was time for the siblings Hetal and Ankur Vaishnav of Late Shri S.G. Dholakia School, Shri P.V. Modi School, Rajkot to show how to Recycle Rexine waste. The sister-brother duo has developed a novel and economic way of recycling rexine waste material by separating the fabric and polymeric components using cryogenic grinding technique in a modified kitchen mixer. They were honoured with a 2nd place Grand Award in the field of Environmental Management. For Akansha Verma and Abhishek Khanna of Maharaja Agrasen School, New Delhi, mixers were not necessary. All that they needed was Acmella oleracea, a naturally growing weed. To control pests, these students have come up with a solution of using extracts of Acmella oleracea. If all us wondered how sages in the Asian ages made ink to write, Pramoda N.V. and Bhargava C.S. of Shree Ramakrishna High School, Puttur have some knowledgeable insights for us. These two students have explored to produce natural ink from Fruits of Terminalia chebula, a giant tree growing abundantly in Western Ghats of India. They have compared their ink to other commercial inks and have found it to be better in many ways. 'An eco-friendly antifungal agent' was the subject of interest for 17 year old Diksha Gupta. Diksha tried to control a fungus which destroys food crop by using eco friendly product from the plan 'Bichubati' which is found in abundance in Himachal Pradesh. "Innovation" has become the mantra of these young minds and through their ideas they have unleashed a new way of diffusing and absorbing existing knowledge. Grassroot innovation networks like schools, colleges and universities needs to be supported well to see more of these fascinating innovations. Ashutosh Chadha, Director, Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia, said, "These projects are an illustration of the scientific accomplishments and innovation that exists in this country, which highlights the incredible things that can happen when inspired ideas and the will to make them happen come together."

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