Pulse charger: Stanford backs Delhi girl’s idea

Fifteen-year-old Sarojini Mahajan,a student of Class 9 at St Mark’s Senior Secondary School,Meera Bagh,first discussed the idea with her teacher in class in July,and subsequently entered it for IGNITE ‘09,NIF’s innovative ideas competition for schoolchildren across India. She won a consolation prize the results of the competition were declared today — but Stanford located the idea on NIF’s data base,and decided to incubate it.

Sarojini’s idea involves a special strap worn on the wrist of a cellphone user,which can convert the wearer’s body heat or pulse into electrical signals,which can then charge the cellphone through a wire. The idea was one of the 1,344 sent in by children from 82 districts,and competed in the Class 8-10 category in the mid-April to mid-September competition.

Sarojini was at home in Paschim Puri,west Delhi,doing her mathematics homework when her teacher called her with the news this evening. “She said my crazy idea had been selected!” she told The Indian Express excitedly. “I said,‘Is this true,it is too good to be true!’”

Anjali Aggarwal,principal of the school,did not know till The Express rang her. “I am proud of that girl,” she said. “She has done our school proud.”

So how did the idea come to her? “I was once sitting and a phone was lying in front of me on a table. I thought,why can’t we charge a phone using our own pulse,you know?” said Sarojini matter-of-factly. “There is a technology called pulse technology and I thought if we can have watches that run on the human pulse,then why not mobile phones?”

Sarojini’s teacher,Neena Punj,said,“She told me her idea and I suggested she should enter it in IGNITE. We had sent two ideas to the NIF but they said that this one was feasible,so they picked it up. We were expecting the results after October 15,but it came a day early. I am very happy for her.”

The girl with the Big Idea wants to be a science researcher when she grows up. “Science fascinates me,I want to explore more and more,” she said. Apart from science,she is interested in music and dancing too. “I am so happy today,” she giggled.

NIF’s Prof Gupta said Stanford is currently working on innovative toys that can be charged as children play with them,using the children’s body heat and movements. “Sarojini’s idea triggered their interest,and they picked it up,” he said.

NIF was optimistic,Gupta said,that the university would incubate some more ideas and innovations lying in its databases. The Department of Science and Technology helped establish NIF in February 2000. Its main goal,according to the NIF web site,is to “provide institutional support in scouting,spawning,sustaining and scaling up grassroots green innovations and helping their transition to self-supporting activities”.