The amount of aspiring young inventors in this country is remarkable, as was visible at the ‘Sahasak Nimewum’ exhibition organised by the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission, held on October 1 and 2.

“I once saw a police uncle being run over by a motorist on a television programme, I’ve also seen many of them in front of our school, baked in the hot sun and drenched in the rain”, says Didula Loliya, a grade six student of St Mary’s College, Matugama. This led Didula to create a much talked about invention – the mobile traffic light stand. Didula’s mobile colour light stand can be operated via remote control that enables the traffic police to control it from a distance without having to stand in the middle of the road.

A clear signal is given out by the arms of the device, while it can run on a battery for up to four days. The police are now interested in fine tuning Didula’s creation to serve in their duties. Didula is a fine example of how a thought conjured from the depths of your heart can be put into motion using the power of the mind. Sanju Subodha Sewwandi, 14, a bright student from The Bomiriya Central College, had come up with a remedy to one of the oldest headaches of the fish- collector kind – cleaning up the fish tank.

Sanju has cleverly created a sedimentation and filter processing scheme that takes care of the dirty work. The system ensures that the water in the tank gets cycled through the filtering so that it can be effectively re-used for up to a year. “There is no need to replace the water, or take the fish out of the tank for cleaning – a problem I used to have a hard time with at home,” Sanju mentions. The cleaning unit consists of a pebble layer, a foil covering, and a pressure valve, quite like the structure seen in a trickle-down water purification scheme, but what needs to be highlighted is that it can be connected to any fish tank with ease.

P.H.K. Jayashanka Dushan, 19, and Prabuddha Chamod, 19, also from Bomiriya Central College showed us their ‘landslide detector’ with pride as they believe it is an invention that will save the lives of many.

Essentially a leveller with a metal rod that is sensitive to the slightest indentation, it will act as a precautionary alarm. “In Sri Lanka, we still rely on people to notify us of small tremors, which will be checked upon manually, essentially that means people practically put their lives on the line,” says Dushan, “With this device a slight deviation in the indentation angle will be detected, and an alarm will go off.” One such detector is networked, with a few others in close vicinity, making sure all the networked detectors give off a signal – essentially weeding out false alarms.

A large part of the detector is made from items that can be found in any household and works under the simple fundamentals of physics. Dushan is no newbie to the field of inventions, claiming third place at the SLIC competition six years ago, as well as the coveted Intel Award for Young Inventors back in 2010.

Speaking to us T.P. Yasawardena, the master in charge of the Inventors Club at Bomiriya Central reiterates the need for such clubs in all schools. “It gives the students a portal into the world of creativity, and adds a new dimension to the curriculum. “We also encourage students who think out of the box, since they will eventually lead the way,” he adds.

Being one of the youngest inventors, 9-year old ,Osadhi Siriwardena of Royal College is seeking a patent for his invention that allows safe reading in the dark. A torch light that has been placed in between a pair of spectacles shines a light on the book, but the genius here is that it acclimatises to the surrounding light to give optimum reading pleasure.

Osadhi is an exceptional student who has grasped the circuitry being taught at the start ofthe advanced level, and indeed is a shining light to the young inventors. Being an electronics buff at this early age, Osadhi believes that he will always continue with his inventions.

Sadev Methmal Kalubowila, 17, has made a mark at Ananda College as the go-to man for any scheme or master plan. His invention, the ‘sticker checker for loose nuts and bolts’ will certainly put an end to the mayhem caused by loose nuts. “Usually there are up to 1500 nuts and bolts in an average machine, and while it is absolutely necessary, it is not practical to check every bolt for loosening,” says Sadev.

This ingenious sticker switch is essentially a sticker that has a green and red luminous surface, while the red surface is left shining when the bolt loosens. In the case of internal bolts, a signal is given off when the red surface is bare. A simple logic gate comes into play here and it is very cost effective.

Sadev’s creation has the potential of saving many lives as the tiniest loose bolt has downed mighty jumbo jets in the past.

“The SLIC has been an immense pillar of strength for young inventors in Sri Lanka, and our mission is to inculcate the spirit of innovation and the value of turning your thoughts into action through hard-work, patience and perseverance”, says Cherika Seneviwickrama, handling the student inventions at the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission.

“Some of these inventions have awed us all, and we ask all schools to create an Inventors Club and build an Idea bank that will help budding inventors at all ages.”

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