From robots to hybrid green energy solutions to insects that break down garbage, students from all over Sindh have come to Karachi to showcase their innovations at the three-day Youth Science and Technology Festival which concluded on Sunday.
Inaugurated on Friday by the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Mahar, the festival features 70+ students from around 40 institutions showcasing their projects. For those with the best projects, prize money exceeding Rs200,000 has been allocated, with Rs100,000 going to first place.
Students from Dow University secured first place with their medical innovation, the “Shifa App”, winning a cash prize of Rs100,000 along with a shield.
Mahar explained that to ensure the quality and transparent evaluation of projects, a panel comprising professors, experts, and professionals has been formed to assess each project fairly and on technical grounds.
Students from various institutions told The Express Tribune that the work on display was the culmination of months, or even a year, of research and work. There were over 50 stalls present, with some students having to share a stall. While I would prefer to detail everything that I saw, here are some of the most innovative projects on display.
Garbage-disposal larva
A group from SST Public School, Rashidabad, showcased their project: black soldier fly larvae and mealworms that could be used to break down waste at an extremely low cost, according to the two students, Ravi and Sidra.
“These are zero-expense,” Dr Maleeha Jamil explained, stating that these flies give birth to many offspring at a time, which makes this method of garbage disposal effective. She added that the larvae and mealworms could feed on biowaste, even plastics. “These larvae are around 60% protein,” Sidra said and added that using these worms in chicken and fish feed resulted in larger yolks and larger fish with more Omega-3 content.
Ravi shared that around 1kg of larvae could eat around 3kg of waste.
Codion – the talking robot
The siblings Humbal and Barirah created Codion, an AI-powered humanoid robot capable of speech, autonomous movement and interactive responses. And before you think of Meta or Boston Dynamics robots, think again. The prototype is a skeleton on wheels, a design choice governed mostly by Barirah. It can hold a conversation, respond to your commands for it to walk, speak in English and Urdu, and if connected to the internet, it can look things up for you in case it does not have the answer available.
WALL-E’s prototype sibling
Inspired by a movie, this robot was designed and built by Simrah, a student from Karachi’s Shaheed-e-Millat College for Women.
She and her brother explained that it navigated via its built-in live camera feed and showcased a compartment on the front that could hold large parcels. Their idea is to develop a robot that can transport, serve, and deliver items to people in locations such as airports, malls, and even restaurants.
While it is not yet autonomous, it can be controlled remotely, and can even look around and adjust its hand’s grip. Unfortunately, Wall-E does find it difficult to travel on carpets, so these are two problem areas that they are actively working on.
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