School students display innovative and eco-friendly ideas and models at Child Innovators Exhibition 2018

An app-driven automated food maker, an automatic dust-lifting machine, a dustbin with sound alert, a hand-driven waste picking and dumping cart, a currency note-sterilizing machine for ATMs, wrapper picker, cycle-powered road cleaner, a tiffin box that reminds children to wash hands before eating.[caption id="attachment_4469033" align="alignleft" width="380"] Abhishek Bhagat explaining about his innovation.[/caption]These are some of the ideas and models on display at the Child Innovators Exhibition which opened on 14 May as a part of the sanitation fortnight organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) here.Abhishek Bhagat from Bhagalpur in Bihar has developed an automated electric-operated food making machine. One can chose a dish from a recipe list, along with the quantity to be cooked. The machine has different boxes for ingredients from where it automatically takes required ingredients and prepares the selected dish. It has the function of verbal instructions as well. Abhishek has also developed a mobile app that can control the functions of the cooker.“In my family, only my mother used to cook and if she used to fall ill or had to go out then I had to cook. From there I got an idea, and I started working on this machine that cooks itself,” Abhishek said.An automated cooking machine on displayAnother innovator Aarthv Sharma from Kullu, Himachal has conceived the idea of an innovative hygienic toilet seat cover lifting mechanism using a foot. The basic problem with the western toilet is that the rim gets wet and dirty after use. It is unhygienic to use such toilets. So, he has placed a pedal adjacent to the toilet pot that pulls up the rim so that it gets dry. With the help of this mechanism, one can easily lift the seat cover without using hands. “I am further working on this prototype to put a slanting water flush system on the fixed rim so that it flushes the urine also,” he said.Yet another innovation is a remote-controlled dustbin with wheels. Aditya Kumar said that his grandmother was sick and bedridden so he thought of developing a remote-controlled dustbin. According to him, it works like a remote-controlled car. The dustbin is fitted with wheels and can be navigated using a remote. He has made a mobile app for this.Anju Bhalla, Joint Secretary, DST, said “these ideas coming from children are connected with real life and felt needs. While academic research mostly remains restricted to labs but these ideas have the capacity to make an impact on the society. These children have amazing potential and they have new ideas to solve day to day problems.” The exhibition has been put together by the Ahmedabad-based National Innovation Foundation (NIF) which works with children and grassroots innovators.India Science Wire