Two City schools make it to innovation competition final

Students from two schools in the City have taken the concept of radio waves and used it to innovate some extraordinary concepts with practical applications.

 No wonder these two teams are among the top 10 finalists selected for the third edition of Teenovators 2014-15, a national-level innovation competition for school students organised by Manipal University.

The finals will be held on Wednesday.

A project called ‘Reach Home Faster’ of students of Air Force School, Hebbal, uses radio waves emitted from phones to help beat the heavy traffic and reach one’s destination faster. The model developed by them estimates that each vehicle has at least one mobile phone. So, the more the number of mobile phones, the more the number of vehicles on the road and an increase in the traffic congestion that results in a greater density of radio waves.

The density of radio waves emitted can in turn be used by a device to calculate the approximate number of mobiles and hence the approximate number of vehicles, giving the driver a rough estimate of the traffic ahead.

“One can even put such a technology on one’s vehicle and use it to one’s benefit. As of now, the radius of our device is very small, but it can definitely be increased to a larger area,” said S Sriram, a class 10 student from the school and one of the four members of the team.
Alternate energy source

‘Alternate Source Of Energy Through Radio Waves’ is a concept of a five-student team from Poorna Prajna Education Centre, Sadashivanagar, that uses the radio waves, but by converting it into electric energy. This is done with the help of a Rectenna, a rectifying antenna that converts microwave energy into direct current electricity.


“This concept can be used to power phones and on a larger scale to even light rural areas that cannot use the conventional sources of electric energy,” said Amith Bhardwaj, a class 10 student of the school and one of the members of the team.