“What a mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve’ .This quote of Napoleon Hill laid the foundation for Adi shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology to introduce a high profile exhibition competition for developing young minds of grades 8 to 12 – ‘Adi Shankara Asianet News Young Scientist Award’.
The objective of Adi Shankara Young Scientist Award (ASYSA) is to recognize the potentialities of promising young aspiring scientists who dedicate themselves to solve the most pressing problems the world faces.
It was one of my biggest dreams to participate in this competition. A team composing of myself ,Shreya V Arun and my team mate Tanmay Sahu participated in this competition and successfully completed 5 rounds in Kuwait via video conference and entered the final round which was held at Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology ,Kalady, The birthplace of Sri Adi Shankaracharya, Ernakulam district, Kerala .
Stage 1 was a registration round .In this round, each team had to submit an abstract of their project idea which includes both summary of the project and the Expected social relevance or Benefit.
After this we were communicated and were guided by a mentor provided by college. Our mentor, Mrs. Remya Ramesh was very supportive and guided us throughout the completion of our project.
Stage 2 was named the ‘Zeroth Round’ in which our idea had to be presented before an expert panel via IMO or Skype to judge the presentation skills of the team.
Stage 3 was a poster submission round in which the team had to design a poster and had to get maximum likes in facebook.
Stage 4 was one Minute Pitching in which we had to express all about our project in just one minute.
Stage 5 was the most crucial round as the round decided if we would go for the finals where we had to setup the entire arrangements with presentation and demonstration in 15 minutes.
The next day we got a mail from the college to pass the information that our team was selected to the final round.
The preliminary round of the competition had an active participation of 546 teams from six countries and 12 states in India of which 89 teams were shortlisted from 300 schools, which participated for winning the prestigious award, which included a 10-day trip to NASA and Silicon Valley in the US and top 20 will win a trip to Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharokota.
A week went very fast with plans, arrangement and preparation to face the final stage in India .
The day 2oth of May, Sunday, at 9.30am, we were ready for our presentation at college. An eminent panel of judges viewed our first round of presentation and we were confident to be into the second round. The same day afternoon, the panel of judges declared the teams selected for the second round, 41 teams and we were one among them.
The day of awaiting result, 21/5/18, the college campus was completely under the security of Kerala Police, to receive the chief guest of the programme, The Vice President of India, Sri Venkaiah Naidu along with the Governor of Kerala, P.Sadasivam with Minister of Tourism, Kadakampally Surendran and eminent guest along with the principal of the college, Dr.Neelakantan P C.
We all were supposed to be seated before 9.00am, in the venue arranged in college with proper security and by 10.30am the chief guest reached and the inauguration was held with proper protocol rules followed. The time reached for the announcement of the results. The first, second and third positions were announced and the price winners received their award from Sri Venkaiah Naidu, The Vice President of India.
The other special eight categories of awards were given to projects which carry the best intellectual and innovative content, presentational style, poster design, and social commitment and relevance etc We are glad to inform that our team came as the three finalists in the one minute pitch round. We received outstanding certificate with encouragement award from the principal of the college Dr.Neelakantan P C.
The day ended with lot of positive thoughts, memories and courage to come up with new thoughts and projects.
The support of our school chairman Mr.N.K.Ramachandra Menon was seamless.
Due to the support of our parents, teachers, vice principals and our Principal Mr.T.Premkumar, our dream came true.
As a token of appreciation, myself and Tanmay are eligible for scholarship for higher studies in Adi Shankara Group of Institution, truly on merit basis.
From my personal experience, I request every student to be a part of Adi Shankara Asianet NewsYoung Scientist Award, as it moulds and develops the inner scientific strength of every student through various rounds. The exposure that students of grade 8 to 12 can get at this age will surely help them to dream and attain greater heights.