Creative Minds Gather Together:

The day of Tuesday, 29th January 2019, witnessed a rare sight when science students from the length and breadth of the state assembled at one place to participate in the State Level Science Exhibition as part of INSPIRE (MANAK) Awards at G.D. Goenka Public School Lucknow. The chief guest for this event was Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Dinesh Sharma.
The school was the venue for the 110 models which were showcased more than 300 students who participated from cities like Gazipur, Agra, Chandauli, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jaunpur, etc., of Uttar Pradesh. Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India is successfully implementing ‘Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)’ scheme since 2010. The scheme covers students in the age group of 10-32 years and has five components. The first component, INSPIRE Award aims to motivate students, in the age group of 10-15 years and studying in classes 6-10, to pursue Science and a career in Research. The students qualified the City Round and moved to the National Round. Rs. 10,000/- award was presented in the previous round.
The judges’ panel was headed by Mr. Shyam Krishna Pandey, Chief Scientist with ISRO’s Training and Command network along with Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Ojha, Chief Scientist with National Botanical Research Centre. They were accompanied by Dr. Suraj Yadav (Scientist), Dr. Shruti (Innovation Fellow) and Mr. Raja Ramanna Singh from National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad, India.
All participants appeared excited and also thrilled as they got getting an opportunity to present their models before the most eminent, established and great scientific brains of the country. The entire campus was abuzz with activity, with student participants from different schools mingling with each other and sharing their scientific innovations, with a variety of models on themes like; ‘Water Purification’; ‘Smarter cooler’; ‘Digital India- More server more speed’; ‘Step locking system in a bus’; ‘Dust collect chamber’ and many more were on display. Each model gave tough competition to the other one; each participant beaming with infectious energy. It is a one of its kind moment when so many genius brains gathered under one roof with a common objective to bring reforms in the field of Science and Technology.
Few interesting models were- ‘Thermal Power Generating Stand’ by Pranjal Srivastava from G.D. Goenka Public School. In this, the excess energy from the gas which is otherwise wasted is utilized to use as a point to charge various other gadgets later. ‘Indian Water Filter’ by Kashv Shukla from G. D. Goenka Public School, Lucknow. India where people in villages do not have access to clean drinking water, a purifier is designed which is available at a low cost of Rs. 150/- It has an additional feature of minerals added to the purifier for the numerous deficiencies found in the people of remote villages of India.
‘Rape Fighting Robot- Siddharth SIDRFR’ by Vidya Vahini School, Allahabad. This robot not only detects rapes but acts instantly towards the safety of the victim by attacking the rapist and injecting chloroform injections. He felt very excited on being part of this event and it was surely a moment of pride for his school and family. Siddharth said “It is one of a kind event for us school students to be able to present our talent here. As India is developing country stress on research and development could bring an array of new innovations and findings. If assistance could be provided to students like us our country would excel in Technology.”
Prateek and Tushhar Aggarwal, the brothers’ duo, have developed the ‘Brainy helmet’. Studying at Seth MR Jaipuria, Gomtinagar Lucknow; the model was based on ensuring that the rider wore his helmet for the bike engine to start. Through this, they wanted to highlight the importance of road safety and which could be achieved if the government implemented this kind of a programme.
Another interesting model was presented by Shashwat Singh from Sunbeam School, Varuna. He said, “Students should focus on hands-on activities and not just rote learning the textbooks. My purpose to be a part of this competition is to know the latest in this field and also to interact with like-minded people and top of it all is to meet eminent scientists and celebrities from the field of Science and Technology.”
The school feels proud to host an event of such magnitude where the who’s who from the field of science and technology will come together to share dais. The participants are ecstatic as there is so much to learn from each other and their scientific attitude will further be heightened.
A grand ceremony was organized in the evening wherein the winners were also announced.