Two students from India and four other Indian-origin students have selected among the 16 global finalists for the finals of the 6th annual ‘Google Science Fair 2016’.
Shriyank K (16) from Bangalore’s National Public School, and Mansha Fatima (15) from Hyderabad’s Sadhu Vaswani International School, are the two Indian students. While, Nikhil Gopal( 15), Anushka Naiknaware (13), Nishita Belur (13), and Anika Cheerla (14), are the other four India-origin students who will compete in the finals for the $50,000 scholarship.
Shrink K has submitted his project titled ‘KeepTab: A novel way to aid memory with deep learning algorithms!’ It is a wearable device-based solution which uses a cloud-based deep learning framework to aid human memory recall the location of day-to-day objects. His project is being rated very high. People believe that his futuristic and unique project has very high chances of winning a rank in the competition.
Mansha Fatima has focused on creating an ‘Automated Water Management and Monitoring System in Paddy Fields’. The project aims to help farmers monitor water levels in rice paddy fields as well as automate water levels for the best possible crop yields.
Nikhil Gopal has made a project titled ‘Point of Care Testing for Malaria Using a Smartphone and Microfluidic ELISA’, Nishita on ‘Detection of Metal Surface Defects Using Laser Light Reflection’, Anushka on ‘Fractal inspired Chitosan and Carbon Nanoparticle Based Biocompatible Sensor for Wound Management’ and Anika Chherla on ‘Automated Prediction of Future Breast Cancer Occurrence from Non-Cancerous Mammograms’.
All the finalists will travel with their families to Mountain View city in Santa Clara country, California. The winner will be decided and announced in a ceremony on 27th September, 2016.
In a statement, Programme lead of Google Science Fair said, “From a breathalyzer test that could predict lung cancer to a carbon filter that may significantly decrease styrofoam waste, these top 16 projects from nine countries around the world represent the brightest ideas to make things better through science and engineering.”
The Google Science Fair is an online science competition sponsored by Google, Lego, Virgin Galactic, National Geographic and Scientific American. The first ever Google Science Fair was announced in January 2011. The competition is open to 13- to 18-year-old students around the globe, who formulate a hypothesis, perform an experiment, and present their results. All students must have an internet connection and a free Google Account to participate, and the projects must be in English, German, Italian, Spanish, or French. The final submission must include ten sections, which are the summary, an “About Me” page, the steps of the project, and a works cited page.
Shree Bose, a 17-year-old girl in Texas, won the grand prize and $50,000 in 2011 for her research on the chemotherapy drug, cisplatin that is commonly taken by women with ovarian cancer, tackling the problem of cancer cells growing resistant to cisplatin over time.
Last year, Olivia Hallisey (16) won the prize with her project ‘Temperature-Independent, Portable, and Rapid Field Detection of Ebola via a Silk-Derived Lateral-Flow System’.
