Rashmi Rekha Das, OP
Innovation is his mantra and motivation. Twenty two year old Anil Pradhan is not content with the several successful projects that he has come up with. Determined to nurture the spirit of innovation among students, especially in the rural areas, he has set up a school to encourage creativity and thinking out of the box
The world is full of wonderfully creative, innovative people who have a passion for change — for making the world a better place; a passion to contribute — to make a difference; a passion to discover something new. Meet 22-year-old Anil Pradhan, who has a thirst for innovation. Felicitated with awards like Global Changemaker by Dais Foundation and National Youth Icon, 2018, Anil has quit three cushy jobs to follow his dreams. His mission is to create a thirst for innovation among students so that every student, regardless of background, becomes an achiever and, in the process, our country progresses. In a tete-a-tete with Sunday POST, Anil spoke about his remarkable innovations and his school of innovation.
Engineering students go for jobs. However, Anil is exceptional. He founded a school in a rural pocket of Cuttack to boost the zest for creativity among students. He started his school with three students last year, now the number of students is 170.
As an innovator, he felt engineering and innovation should not be restricted to a specific branch of engineering. He has designed various sustainable solutions such as a technology to maximise daylight in buildings, thereby reducing electricity consumption. This technological innovation led to him being listed among the top seven innovators in India by Larsen and Toubro (L&T). He was the lead design engineer for the VSSUT Student Satellite Team, which is India’s first multipurpose students’ rocket mission to monitor Hirakud dam. He was also the structural designer of the robot presented by the VSSUT Robotics team at the Asia Pacific ABU Robocon. Being an outstanding civil engineer, he was appointed an Affiliate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
According to Anil, “Creativity must become our nature, constructiveness must become our habit, and seeds of inquisitiveness must sprout every day and every moment. Then, innovation will become our practice. Enrichment of innovative activities must become a mission and goal for all of us.”
To a question on his view of engineering, Anil responds: “Belonging to a middle class family, I had faced many ups and downs in life. By solving those real life problems, I learned the art of innovation. Those who can solve a real life problem are real engineers. They can utilise their technical education to solve problems.
Otherwise, there is no difference between a mechanic and an engineer. Once considered to be the gateway to success, an engineering degree is fast losing its charm. Blame it on the mushrooming of engineering colleges in every nook and cranny of the state or the poor job placement record. Apart from the prestigious IITs and NITs and a few other colleges which provide quality education and placements, the rest lag behind by quite a distance. That apart, I feel the hunger for doing something new is missing in students nowadays.”
He further says: “There was a time when young engineers used to take pride in taking apart an engine or transmission or a differential and then putting it back together. Some would do similar things with machine tools. They would proudly show off their greasy hands and dirty overalls. Engineering students built their own small motorcycles with parts bought from the scrap stores and used it to shuttle between classes and workshops and the hostel. Project work used to be building innovative gadgets challenging those in the market. Discussions would be centred on how things work or what was the scientific or engineering explanation for a phenomenon and students would quiz each other and debate issues. Probing and thought-provoking questions, the why and what of things, would come up in canteens. Now students are more concerned about marks than coming up with something new.”
Anil was born in 1996 in Cuttack and raised in Bhopal. He completed his secondary education from Carmel Convent School. “I was around eight years old when I came up with my first innovation,” he says. “I used to cycle to school. I would often get late for school as my cycle chain kept falling off. To resolve this constant problem, I came up with an adjustable pulley. That day, I realised that innovation is driven by the need to find solutions to problems. I have always had a keen interest in innovation and designing. In 2011, I was awarded the “National Junior Editor Award” by Dainik Bhaskar. When my father came to know that I was preparing a 16-page layout design, he tore up the project. However, I did not get discouraged and started all over again. To everyone’s surprise, I bagged the National Junior Editor Award.”
Anil talks about some of his interesting and useful innovations: “My project on ‘How to keep CRPF campus clean and pollution free’ was appreciated by the then DIG of CRPF, Bhopal. My other projects include an automatic daylight optimiser, which exemplifies a sustainable approach to housing. Here, the topmost roof slab of a building is replaced by panels made up of durable polycarbonate sheet, Arduino, linear actuators, light sensors and rain sensors. This technique is useful in maximising the daylight inside the room. These panels can be controlled by mobile and web-based applications. This project was recognised by L&T and I was honoured as one of the top seven innovators of the country. My next project was ‘Versatile Accessibility Implementation in Surrounding, Housing, and Landscaping for India: Universal Design Approach for Betterment of Disabled.’ This project was recognised by the CBR Network. The project focuses on design of civil work for easy accessibility for persons with disabilities. It focuses on planning of areas such as pedestrian walkways and staircases. It is a design guideline made for the purpose of providing architects and designers in India with the basic information and data necessary for a barrier-free environment.”
“My project ‘Structural designing of railway shed and foot-overbridge by hollow steel sections’ was recognised by the Tata Steel Company. The project focused on the planning and designing of railway platforms. The design and analysis was done using STAAD Pro. The designed platform uses hollow cylindrical steel sections rather than the conventional I and T sections.”
That’s not all. He was the lead design engineer for the VSSUT Student Satellite team, which is India’s first multipurpose students’ rocket mission to monitor Hirakud Dam. “Reckoned among the biggest earthen dams of the world, Hirakud is a victim of heavy siltation, which has taken a toll on its storage capacity raising questions about its efficacy during floods since it receives heavy inflow from the Mahanadi’s upper catchment area, the bulk of which falls in Chhattisgarh. That’s why we decided to monitor the dam.
The team won Asia’s first inter college rocket competition organised by Space Development Nexus (SDNx) and BRICS. Our team was also invited to the International Innovation Festival organised in Bengaluru,” he says.
Not satisfied with the many innovations that he has come up with, Anil founded the school called International Public School for Rural Innovation to nurture the spirit of innovation among students. He explains, “Education focused on innovation helps to foster a creative mindset from an early age and can play a vital role in transforming a society from low to high productivity, from poverty to prosperity, from being consumers to being producers of ideas.”
Now, Anil motivates and guides young people around the globe to start rural innovation schools in their country. The talk he gave at the International Youth Summit held in South Korea was highly appreciated and he was given the “Best Speaker” award by the International Youth Fellowship, South Korea. He aims to develop a network of innovation schools across the globe, in rural areas, in the hope of creating a better world.
About his school, Anil says, “It’s a first of its kind in India. Every school focuses on elementary education whereas my school believes in creating a thirst for innovation among students. We don’t believe in promoting the school. When we started the school, we had only three students. Now it has 170 students. Apart from teaching students about new creations, I let students make whatever they want.”
Recalling his initial days of struggle, Anil says, “I had land. But I did not have sufficient funds to set up the school. So I used my scholarship money and all my savings for the cause. Besides, my parents and brother came to my rescue. I managed to set up the school at Bayalish Mouza in Cuttack, in 2017. It was difficult to convince the parents of underprivileged students to send their wards to the school. You will be surprised to know what the village people asked us when we approached them: They wanted to know if their wards would get egg curry for lunch.”
Anil continues: “At our school, we provide free education to underprivileged students, but we collect a nominal monthly fee of Rs 300 from other students. Apart from installing many kinds of equipment, we hold various programmes for students to trigger their interest in doing something new. Two of my students got the youngest innovator award at the Maker Fest held in Sambalpur. Some other students have come up with an alarm dustbin. If you put any plastic material in the dustbin, the alarm goes off. I feel happy as well as surprised when sometimes they ask me questions that have not occurred even to me. In most schools today, we are not creating innovators, we are creating robots who are only asked to get good marks.”
Elaborating on his school and its philosophy, the young engineer says, “Innovation in education can take many forms, like incorporating new technology or teaching methods, going on field trips, rejecting social norms, or partnering with the local community. Our school focuses on educating underprivileged students in rural areas, in particular. We believe that knowledge of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) can bring about a revolution in the modern education system.”
Anil emphasises that new teaching-learning methods need to be introduced to trigger important shifts in thinking and behaviour. These might include:
Encouraging a child to go from just saying “yes” to learning to ask “why?” Children must be encouraged to be curious and ask innumerable whys and why nots.
Teaching children not just to look, but to observe: Keen observation of the environment has caused many breakthroughs in science and medicine and in the social and business worlds.
Children must be taught and encouraged to observe deeply, to look beyond the obvious.
Shifting from passive learning to hands-on experiential learning and exploration: Hands-on practical experiments, which engage the child’s senses of touch, feel, smell, sight and sound, are extremely effective in helping him to grasp, explain and retain otherwise difficult concepts.
Shifting from being textbook-bound to being hands-on: In this era of easily accessible data, children are not given the chance to think or reason for themselves. Model-making workshops, audio-visual presentations, role-playing activities and exploring the physical world help to deliver the message of classroom lessons in a more interesting and effective manner.
Shifting from fear to confidence: By encouraging children, we can train them to be independent and solve problems on their own, thus nurturing their confidence and
self-belief.
Feathers in Anil’s cap
- National Youth Icon Award
- Best Speaker Award, International Youth Summit, South Korea
- National Junior Editor Award
- WIZ National Spell Bee
- Grade A Certified-Abacus Mental Arithmetic Programme
- Lead design engineer for India’s first multi-purpose student rocket mission
- Won the National Hydraulic Bridge Designing Competition and recognised among top seven innovators, India
- Appreciated by Regional Science Centre, Bhopal for best paper
presentation on wetland conservation - Youth Idol award