At first glance, Kaushik Srivatsan, R Lakshmi and Vibha Suresh seem like regular school children but ten minutes into a conversation with the three of them and you realise that there’s more to these kids than meets the eye. All of them are high scholastic achievers whose enthusiasm transcends mere academics. While 15 year old Vibha excels in Kathak and Bharatnatyam, she also finds time for Carnatic music and handwriting analysis. Besides, being awarded the National Talent Search Scholarship, Lakshmi packs a punch in lawn tennis, swimming and public speaking. And Kaushik remains engrossed with the fine art of cooking up a variety of rice based dishes and experimenting with salads when he is free from school projects.

That’s not all — these bright youngsters are winners of the national IRIS (Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science) awards for innovative science and technology projects. They have been chosen to represent India in the 2010 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) to be held in San Jose, California, from May 9-14, 2010. “We had to go through the rigours of three coaching camps, where scientists and researchers helped us improvise and refine our projects to meet international standards,” said Kaushik, a 11th standard student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mandya district, Karnataka.
Kaushik's project reveals that the pinwheel flower, the state flower of Karnataka popularly known as ‘Nandibattalu’ in Kannada, has antimicrobial properties which can cure people of conjunctivitis and styes in the eye. The pinwheel flower also helps to kill bacteria which cause food poisoning in human beings and kills fungi that destroy plants that are important for human consumption. How did Kaushik's interest veer toward science when his first love was mathematics, solving GMAT questions and Sudoku puzzles?
“My biology teacher, Remani Kathiyayani is my source of inspiration. The turning point in my life came when she refused to grant me marks for a project on the greenhouse gas effect, because I had spent a lot of money on making a model of a glass house with some plants inside when I could have used commonly available material for it. She taught me to think beyond the obvious for affordable, workable solutions to daily problems that we might be facing. And encouraged me to research my topics thoroughly, meet scientists and get hands-on experience,” said Kaushik, who dreams of becoming a chemical engineer and a lifetime researcher.
For Vibha Suresh and R Lakshmi, their tryst with destiny began when one of their seniors won the national IRIS award last year and took home a laptop, a trophy and a certificate. “We wanted to win laptops too and decided that if she could do it, so could we,” they said. The girls, who are classmates and students of standard 10 at VVS Sardar Patel High School, Bengaluru, came up with a unique climbing chair, an aid for the handicapped, which costs a paltry Rs 5,000 and weighs 16 kgs.
“Climbing chairs in the US cost Rs 22 lakh as they are battery operated and come equipped with sensors and motors. We were determined to come up with an affordable mechanism that would suit pockets of the handicapped in India. We had to device a simple structure that can be easily fabricated," said Lakshmi. While the girls toiled on with version 1, 2, 3 of the chair, their supportive Principal Ramani Hariharan scheduled separate tests for them and gave them the much required attendance to sit for the SSLC exams. “We are fortunate to have an extremely approachable Principal, whom we can call any time. She readily solves all of our problems,” said Vibha.
Meanwhile, as the date of the ISEF approaches, the three whizkids are unable to contain their excitement at the prospect of interacting and ideating with an international community of researchers and scientists. What else will they do in the US? “We will shop for clothes and accessories,” they chorus in unison. That's when it dawns that these geniuses are just children after all.
 

Sangeetha Chengappa