A third-year computer engineering student of Manav Rachna College of Engineering, Faridabad, Roopam Sharma (20) has designed a real-time tracking system for patients suffering from dementia. On May 27, Emancipator was adjudged a ‘Top 10 Global Innovation’ at the online Microsoft Youth Spark Challenge for Change 2015. The award includes prize money of $2,500 (Rs.1.58 lakh), a leadership-development trip to Nicaragua later this month (August), and a Windows phone.
Roopam also teamed up with fellow students Akshita Sachdeva, Neeraj Saini and Debajit Guha to develop Manovue — a first-of-its-kind assistance device for the blind — which has qualified for the Microsoft Imagine Cup global finals 2015 to be staged in Seattle, USA, from July 27-31. If the team wins, it will earn them a bumper $50,000 (Rs.31.7 lakh) as prize money.
“I started working on Emancipator in January after joining the MIT Media Lab India research initiative, and submitted my entry for the Youth Spark Challenge in February. Using geofencing and wearable technologies, Android and Visual Studio 2013 Pro software, I developed the application which is compatible with Microsoft’s Android phones. To conceptualise and develop Manovue, the team used Open Source computer vision libraries software, Espeak — a speech synthesizer — and ultrasonic sensors,” explains Roopam.
Emancipator is a mobile app which sends alerts to a patient’s caregiver when the patient leaves a predefined geographical area set by the caregiver. The patient wears a band which starts vibrating as soon as the geo-fence is crossed. On the other hand, Manovue is a multi-utility wearable haptic (touch-based) device which enables users to read any printed text by moving their fingers over it. “Our team built Manovue with a coordinated Windows phone application which makes use of integrated Cortana intelligent personal assistant technology through voice commands,” says the young techie.
Encouraged and inspired by all the encomiums, Roopam’s career path is set on an upward trajectory of social entrepreneurship. “Winning the Imagine Cup programme will enable me to commercialise my innovations. In the meantime, I will tap government and other sources for financial support to develop digital products and processes which can make life easier for the huge number of neglected physically and mentally challenged people of India,” he vows.
Way to go, bro!
Autar Nehru (Delhi)
Arkya Chatterjee
Accolades are raining on Arkya Chatterjee (18), a student of south Kolkata’s Vivekananda School, who almost maxed CISCE’s class XII Indian School Certificate board examination (results were declared in May) with a record average of 99.75 percent. 
Nor is this astonishing average the sum of his achievements. In July, Arkya was awarded rank 288 in the IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination)-Advanced — reputedly the country’s toughest public exam — and by virtue thereof, was admitted into the elite IIT-Bombay’s four-year B.Tech (engineering physics) degree programme.
The elder of two children of Kolkata-based software professionals Tapas and Monideepa Chatterjee — employees of IT majors Cognizant Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services respectively — Arkya attributes his extraordinary academic achievements to hard work, mentoring from school and FIIT-JEE teachers, parental support and most of all, to his grandfather, a retired Central government employee. “Though I owe my success to all these selfless people, it was my grandfather who helped me strategise and draw up balanced study schedules which enabled an all-round good performance,” he acknowledges.
A topper since class VIII, Arkya believes there’s no substitute for sustained, disciplined study. “Throughout my Plus Two years, I followed a schedule which included five-six hours of study after school, and 10-12 hours on weekends. My interest in STEM subjects, especially physics, grew over the years, so in class XI I decided to also sign up with the local FIIT-JEE test preparatory academy which runs weekend classes,” says Arkya, who includes Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman among his inspirations.
With the future looking bright for this gifted youth, after completion of his B.Tech degree programme at IIT-B, Arkya intends to do research in high-energy/particle physics. “The common complaint is that India doesn’t have enough research scientists and innovators. I hope to step forward and do my bit to fill that breach,” says Arkya.
Wind in your sails!
Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)