Young innovators from Visakhapatnam make the city proud at ISYIC

Need is the mother of invention.  Age need not be a benchmark or limitation. Proving this right are seven young innovators, from Visakhapatnam, studying in Silver Oaks International School and Visakha Valley School. They are making Vizag proud by reaching the finals in the International STEM Youth Innovation Competition (ISYIC) at the Royal Air Force Museum in London.

The British International Education Association (BIEA), with the aim of stimulating students’ passion for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), has organised this event.  A total of 30,000 teams, from 38 countries have participated, of which, 45 teams from 18 countries made it to the finals.

Three teams from India have been selected. These are Imaginators and M16, from Visakhapatnam, and the Conservation Action Team (CAT) from Bengaluru. The teams were given the theme  ‘Fighting extinction using drone technology’.

The Imaginators comprise of Sashil Maddila, Mohammed Rayaan and Aarnav Reddy Nerla from Silver Oaks International School under the 9 to 11 years old category. The other team, from Vizag M16, is formed by Shreya Allada, Smyan Tez Vankayalapati, Harsh Saraswathula and Jahnavi Movva, from Visakha Valley School, participating under the 14 to 17 years age group.

Both the teams were trained by Nagashilpa Seethamraju, Founder of Coding4kids Pvt. Ltd. in Visakhapatnam.

These teams have been allotted a budget of one hundred UK pounds to either buy or build, a drone for the finals. The senior team modified its drone using a MatLab Program and Raspberry Pi for the controller. While the junior team used a Twitter bot program with Raspberry Pi and Sensehat. Notably, the junior team’s drone is designed like an eagle where the batteries consume less energy while it is gliding.

Speaking to Yo! Vizag, Nagashilpa mentioned teaching her kids programming and volunteering in her community schools in the USA. She is a certified Lego EV3 teacher, from Carnegie Melon University’s Robotics Academy (USA), and a Raspberry Pi certified educator from Cambridge, UK. After moving to Vizag and seeing that the schools here do not offer much exposure to the children in the Science and Technology field, she decided to start her own company to train children in Robotics and Lego designing. Nagashilpa has trained four teams from Visakhapatnam, two of which have made it to the finals in London on 4 July 2019.

We wish these young innovators the best and hope they bring laurels to the city.