2 SL teens win Grand Awards at Intel ISEF
View(s):Two Sri Lankan teenagers recently brought back Grand Awards from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2014, held in Los Angeles, USA. Receiving awards were the “Versatile Field Construction Machine for Paddy Cultivation”, by Namal Udara Pyasiri, and the “Artificial Intelligence Sense for the Blind to Play Video Games using Their Tongue”, by Nipun Kavishka Silva.
As per the competition’s website, Namal’s project synopsis was as follows: “Many accessories and machinery have been introduced for various agriculture based activities, yet nobody has introduced a machine for bund reforming with the ability to plough the paddy field. Up to now the bund reforming and ploughing were considered a strenuous task. After introducing this new machine, it will be an easy task for the farmers in paddy cultivation, since it could be done with less labour and less time. With less labour and time, eventually the cost will be brought down. This machine is to be connected to a tractor. For the work of bund reforming and ploughing one operator will be sufficient. The amount of mud, angle and width of the ridge can be adjusted by configuring settings of the machine. Changing the settings during operation is also possible”.
Meanwhile, Nipun’s project is described, in part, as follows: “Blindness forms a significant barrier to participate in physical activities including entertainment. Playing video games is one way of having fun. At present the current video game technology for the blind is relying on sound cues, but no sense of vision. We are familiar with augmentation or substitute of one sense for another such as eyeglasses. This invention is using tongue sensor as touch sense to take in information normally intended for another sense called vision”.
Award recipients Namal, aged 18 years, from Tabuththegama Central College, and Nipun, aged 15 years, from De Mazenod College in Kandana, joined a total of 1,783 secondary school students coming from 435 affiliated events in around 70 countries that travelled to the United States, to compete for awards and scholarships valued at more than US$ 4 million. There were more than 500 Grand Award winners and finalists this year alone.
At the same time, according to Sri Lanka’s Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena; “It is very encouraging to note that one of the boys this year is among the first group of Advanced Level students to pursue the new technology stream… The Ministry made this very important addition to the A/L exams to address the need for more ‘job oriented’ curriculum and will make our youth population more employable right out of school”.
Additionally revealed, the competition’s big winner was Boston’s Nathan Han, aged 15 years, who received the Gordon E. Moore Award of US$ 75,000 for “developing a machine learning software tool to study mutations of a gene linked to breast cancer”.
(JH)