Five Maharishi School students honored for their science fair inventions

FAIRFIELD – Five students from Maharishi School in Fairfield received awards for projects they completed at the Eastern Iowa Science and Engineering Fair.

Two of the students, fourth-year student Ishita Mukadam and second-year student Antariksha Sharma, won top honors and will present their projects at the International Science and Technology Fair in Los Angeles next month. is.

Head of School Richard Beale said these recent honors for Maharishi School students were the latest in a long history of science fair excellence dating back 40 years. He said Ted Wallace became the school’s first state champion in any event when he won the science fair in 1986.

“Ted went on to international competitions and his younger brother Gareth followed in his footsteps, winning multiple states and placing fairly high in international competitions,” Mr Beale said. “What we’re seeing now is more students are interested in this. We’ve got these five students, and the really important research is going to help this school and these students. It’s nice to know that it can really have a lasting impact.”

Beer credited Asha Sharma, a Maharishi School teacher and science fair advisor, with playing a key role in the science fair team’s success. Sharma said doing a science fair project is one of the options available during the school project period. During the first week of class, Sharma asks students to brainstorm ideas for projects. She said three of her students at this year’s science fair are continuing and improving on projects they started a year or two ago.

“We discuss what resources are going to be needed, what materials are going to be needed,” Sharma said. “I’m there to make sure things get done on time and that we’re moving in the right direction.”

All five students are pursuing unique projects based on their interests, and all hope to turn their ideas into real products after high school. The students are:

Joyce Wang (Junior)

Joyce Wang was looking for a project that dealt with the automotive industry, where her father works. She saw an opportunity to make electric cars more efficient. In the same way that an electric car’s brakes charge the battery, Wang wanted to see if other movements in the car, such as the suspension system, could be used to charge the battery.

Wang has created a design that shows how an improved suspension system can absorb a car’s bouncy motion and convert it into electrical current that feeds the battery. Wang said such a suspension system would increase the range of electric vehicles before needing to be charged.

At the Eastern Iowa Science and Technology Fair, Ms. Wang was selected as a regional finalist and received the EISEF Class 1 Award for Exceptional Genius and an invitation to the Environmental Genius Olympics International High School Project Fair. She received the Naval Science Award from the Office of Naval Research.

Antariksha Sharma (2nd year student)

Antariksha Sharma was looking for new ways to treat diseases. She had typhoid fever last summer, and the year before that she had the flu, which required her to take large doses of antibiotics. But she kept getting sick.

“I wanted to find an alternative, not just for myself, but for other people who are immunocompromised or don’t have access to antibiotics,” she said.

Sharma came up with the idea of ​​experimenting with natural remedies to treat infections and discovered that the combination of garlic and honey was effective in killing bacteria. She found that tablets containing raw garlic and Manuka honey were as effective at killing bacteria as synthetic antibacterial agents, and could be mass-produced at low cost for just 5 cents per tablet.

Dr. Sharma conducted the experiment at the Jefferson County Health Center under the supervision of lab manager Jim Schwartz and conducted three tests at the Microbiology Laboratory at Iowa State University in Ames.

“The laboratory technicians at the hospital were very optimistic about the test results,” Sharma said.

Sharma said this would be a major advance for the industry, as over time bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, and giving people a new way to treat illness “means a lot to them.” That’s what happened,” he said.

Poojita Mukadam (2nd year student)

Poojita Mukadam wanted to help the estimated 300 million people in the world who have some form of color blindness. Not knowing the color of an object can cause serious problems, such as distinguishing between red and green at a traffic light.

Mukadam wrote a computer program in the Python programming language to train the camera to recognize and report the colors it sees. Mukadam said her invention could be applied to cars, where a computer could verbally indicate to her whether a traffic light is red, yellow or green through a speaker.

Mukadam said her invention not only helps people who are color blind, but could also be used by blind people who want to know the color of objects, such as the clothes they are wearing.

Mukadam received the Systems Engineering Achievement Award in the Systems Engineering category and received the EISEF Senior Physical Sciences Honor Award.

Ishida Mukai Dam (senior)

Ishida Mukadam has been interested in the medicinal properties of turmeric for several years. Two years ago, Mukadam developed a turmeric bandage, which involves inserting turmeric into wounds to aid healing. This year, she wanted to take her research a step further and improve turmeric bandages. Specifically, she wanted to see if she could create a bandage that would indicate whether a wound was infected.

Through his experiments, Mukadam discovered that the presence of an infection changes the pH reading, which indicates whether a substance is acidic or alkaline. She also discovered that she could create substances that changed color based on their pH value. Mukadam was able to create a bandage that turns from yellow to red when pressed onto an infected wound.

Mukadam said he would like to further develop the product and believes it is environmentally friendly and materially cost-effective.

Keshav Shinoria (Junior)

Keshav Sinolia wanted to find a way to make rockets more efficient. He discovered that his one way to do that was to give them movable fins. He said giving the rocket movable fins would save fuel and make the flight control system cheaper.

Sinoria tested his idea with both model rockets and computer simulations. He expects to be able to incorporate his invention into larger rockets in the future, he said.

Shinoria received the Certificate of Outstanding Scientific and Technical Achievement from the U.S. Air Force and the Outstanding Achievement Award for the Use of Radio or Radio Electronic Equipment from Cedar Valley Amateur Radio and Collins Amateur Radio Clubs.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com.