Mumbai: Manipal University, a leading university in India, announced the winners of their national-level student innovation championship, TEENOVATORS 2013-14, today. Air Force School, Hebbal, Bangalore emerged as the winners for their work on converting radio waves into electric energy and took home a cash prize of Five lakh rupees in grand finale today.

Teenovators began in August 2013 with an innovation quotient test held across 15 cities in the country for students in Classes 9 to 12. From among 2 lakh entries from 500 schools that took part, 50 teams per city were short listed. Each of them came up with innovations that are of value to society. From among these, six teams were selected to showcase their unique innovations in the run-up to the grand finale. These teams were trained and mentored by experts from GE, LG Soft, IBM, Microsoft and Intel.

Winners list

1.            Air Force School, Hebbal, Bangalore, bagged the first prize for their innovation to convert radio waves from a cell phone to electricity.  The team was given a cash prize of five lakh rupees. The team consisted of Prajual P J, Ganesh Siva S, Sriram S. The team thanked their mentor, Sanjay Chitnis, Program Manager LG Soft India, who helped them conceive the idea.

2.            Naryana Junior College, Champapet, Hyderabad, secured second place for their innovation to track the sun so as to maximize the solar energy absorbed. The team was given a cash prize of three lakh rupees. The team consisted of Akhil L, Shalu K, Varun M, Surender and Sai Kiran. They were mentored by Srinath Vasireddy, Principal Program Manger, Microsoft.

 

3.            Seshadripuram PU College, Yelahanka, Bangalore, bagged third prize for their project on a solar-powered electric generator. The team took home a cash prize of one lakh rupees. The team consisted of Arjun Amruth, Vengesh Damodaran, Abhinav Priyadarshi, Syed Faraz and Veeresh Angadi. They were mentored by Mr. Monojeet Chakravorty, Program Manager, representing Intel.

 

4.            The DAV Public School, Rajpura, Chandigarh took home consultation prize for their innovation of utilizing the energy produced by the movement of trains. The team consisting of Shubham Singh, Bhavay Gudwani, Nagish Bansal, Chetanya Chopra and Puneet Dhir took away a cash prize of Rs 50,000/- The team thanked their mentor, Dr Prasanth Kumar, GE Global Research, who helped them conceive the idea.

 

5.            Holy Angels School, Chandigarh, were awarded consultation prize for their proposal to make cars green through the use of bio-fuels processed from sunflower oil. The team consisted of Awaljot Kaur, Ayushi Malik, Shivika Hans, Srishti Verma and Kanva Singla. They were mentored by Naveen G V, from Intel during the course of the project. The team received a cash prize of Rs 50,000/-.

 

 

The event was presided over by Dr. Ramdas Pai, Chancellor, Manipal University. Ranjan Anandan, MD, Google India, was the chief guests. Sukla Chandra, General Manager, GE Global Research, and Deepak Bharadwaj – Director, Strategy & Corporate Affairs, Texas Instruments were the guest of honour.

This is the third edition of Teenovators that has been successfully conducted by Manipal University. Apart from the six finalist teams, around 150 principals from prestigious schools across the country attended the event.

Innovation Curriculum: In furtherance to their avowed principles of changing the education scenario for the better, Manipal University released the outline of an ‘Innovation Curriculum’ that will be sharing with all the participating schools across the country. This innovation curriculum will provide guidelines, encompass knowledge sessions, include case-studies, workshops and community activities that will train students to think innovatively and encourage them to put on their thinking hats. Manipal University has taken this step to make the process of fostering innovation amongst teens more sustainable.

The innovations were judged by eminent personalities like Dr. Manish Gupta, Vice President, Xerox Corporation Director, Xerox Research, Dr. D.K. Subramanian, President, Foundation for Advancement of Education & Research (FAER), Dean and Professor (Rtd.) Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Mythreyee Ganapathy, Principal Program Manager Lead, Applications and Services, Microsoft Research, Sukla Chandra, General Manager, Global Research Director, Legal, PACE (Patents and Analytics Centre of Excellence), GE Global Research, Bangalore

Principals of various schools from across the country who attended the grand finale applauded the efforts put in by Manipal University to encourage innovation at the school level.

Source : Poonam Dabade