Page 25 - EducationWorld June 2020

Young Achievers

without our generous In AIASC 2019, participants were
sponsors — Meritor given access to real-time data from
Commercial Vehicle the Pan Starrs Telescope, sited in
Systems India Pvt. Hawaii, USA, and were required
Ltd, Accuspirals and to search for asteroids in the solar
Metal Power Ana- system’s Main Belt Asteroid — be-
lytical (I) Pvt. Ltd — tween the orbits of Jupiter and Mars
college management — over a span of four weeks using
and senior faculty advanced data analysis and specially
Dr. Nataraj J.R. Our designed software. At the end of the
all-terrain vehicle cost prescribed four-week time period,
us Rs.5 lakh to put on Nikhil’s claim of having discovered
the road,” acknowl- a new asteroid was verified as one of
edges Chinmay. 13 asteroid discovered by 17 partici-
Chinmay Bukinkere (rear centre right) Though currently pants.
in the thick of his final The only child of software en-
TEAM HELIOS RACING year (online) exam, Chinmay is en- gineer Anil Kumar Jha and home-
maker Runa, Nikhil acknowledges
thused by the success of GT 20 and
believes the experience will stand all institutional support. “I attribute
angalore-based Team Helios team members in good stead. “My this achievement to my school’s as-
Racing — comprising 50 experience as a Helios Racing team tronomy club mentor Aryan Mishra.
Bengineering undergrads of member has taught me the critical I have requested AIASC to name the
the city’s RV College of Engineer- importance of time and team man- asteroid MAPNIK using the MAP
ing (RVCE) — bested 40 teams to agement. I’m certain these lessons acronym to represent my school fol-
be crowned national champions will prove useful in our future ca- lowed by the first three letters of my
at the Enduro Student India (ESI) reers in industry and will be of value name,” he says.
competition staged in Talegaon, to our employers,” says Chinmay, Nikhil’s interest in astronomy
Pune from February 7-10. The team who is all praise for RVCE’s learning- was ignited by his science teacher
bagged a humongous trophy and by-doing culture. K.S. Devina when he was in class V.
prize money of Rs.2.65 lakh. Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore) “Stargazing became a habit since I
Started in 2014 by the Kolkata- started attending the first few classes
based SplitSecond Engineering on science and space. But my formal
& Performance Pvt. Ltd, Enduro NIKHIL JHA introduction to astronomy took place
Student India is a design competi- three years later when I enrolled
tion open to engineering students in my school’s astronomy club,” he
to design, build and test all-terrain arly teen Nikhil Jha (14) is says.
vehicles. the latest to join the country’s Inspired by the Golden Globe
Founded by a group of final year Eexclusive club of asteroid hunt- award-winning English film The
mechanical engineering students of ers. This class X student of Mount Martian, Nikhil aspires to qualify
the 2007 batch, Team Helios Rac- Abu Public School, Delhi was among as an astronaut after completing his
ing of RVCE — ranked among the 17 of 1,000 participants countrywide Plus Two. “I am waiting for India
country’s Top 10 private engineer- to spot an asteroid in the online All to become Covid-free so that I can
ing colleges in the latest Education- India Asteroid Search Campaign teach astronomy to underprivileged
World Private Engineering Colleges (AIASC) held in July-August 2019, children,” says this asteroids hunter
Rankings 2020-21 — designs and the results of which were declared with sky-high ambitions.
fabricates all-terrain vehicles to last month (May). Akhila Damodaran (Bangalore)
compete in national and interna- Started in 2010 by Space
tional competitions. Technology & Education
Steered by captain Chinmay Pvt. Ltd (aka Space India)
Bukinkere, Team Helios started — an NGO committed to
working on its prototype GT20 popularising astronomy and
last March (2019). “We spent four space sciences in associa-
months brainstorming our designs tion with the International
and ideas, then three months build- Astronomical Search Col-
ing it and another three months laboration led by Dr. Patrick
testing it. Team members assigned Miller of Hardin Simmons
with technical duties designed University, USA — the All
GT20 on Catia, a multi-platform India Asteroid Search Cam-
software suite for computer- paign is a unique real-time
aided design and manufacturing, competitive research experi-
and leveraged Ansys and Matlab ence for school students
software for analysis. This achieve- and amateur astronomers
ment wouldn’t have been possible in India.

JUNE 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 25