An online contest for science enthusiasts is inviting entries from students, teachers and researchers. Gauri Rane gets the details from Adit Gupta, founder and CEO, Function Space, the company helming the competition .
In India, 'Developing a scientific temperament and the spirit of inquiry and reason' is a Fundamental Duty of all citizens. Despite this, over the years the study/ knowledge of science has become more of a memorisation of facts and formulae than mastery of concepts, independent thinking and discussion. “The lack of awareness about science has lead to a a premature death of ideas that could help shape the technology that we would be using in the next 10 years.,” says Adit Gupta, founder and CEO, Function Space.
To prevent this loss of scientific talent and to encourage those with a scietific bent of mind, Gupta has announced a digital science contest titled—Think! which will scout for breakthrough scientific ideas from people across all age groups. “Our vision behind launching such a competition is to ignite the passionately curious scientific mind, to find breakthrough solutions to existing problems,” explains Gupta. The ideas submitted by participants will be tested on parameters like the originality of the idea or solution, clarity and impact.
Since the competition is open for participants of all age groups, there will be three categories (i) School level students up to class XII (ii) College level (iii) Teachers, researchers and professionals from any field. Top 20 ideas in each of the above categories shall be selected and open to voting by people. Two best write- ups in each of these will win prizes. It is an individual participation event where the participant has to submit a write-up, describing the idea objective, scientific principle and method applied in solving the problem.
The contest is a step in search for the ‘Indian Science Dream’. Its aim is promote the spirit of questioning in science and unleash the thinking potential of the human mind. It is not restricted to science and and technology alone, any topic practical problem solution can get qualified for the contest.
Till now the contest has received over 20,000 registrations. Effective way to reduce electricity usage, early prediction of cancer, solving criminal evil practices against women and converting municipal solid waste to useful fuels are some of the proposals in the competition. To register login at http://www.functionspace.org/think
