3 Indians among 15 finalists in Google Science Fair

Bangalore: Two students from the city, one from Lucknow and an Indian origin American are among the 15 finalists in this year’s Google Science Fair, the global science competition that challenges the young minds to conduct experiments that they think can change the world.

16-year old Rohit Fenn and Raghavendra Ramachandran (17) qualified for the final round from Bangalore, while Sumit Singh (14) has made it from Lucknow, Google India Head (Products) Lalitesh Katragadda told reporters here.

Another finalist is 17-year old Yamini Naidu, an Indian origin American, he said.

The three Indian students will fly along with 12 other finalists to Google’s headquarters in California in July to present their projects to the panel of judges and compete for prizes that include USD 100,000 in scholarship funds, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and more, Katragadda said.

Rohit's qualifying science project is a partial-vacuum assisted flush that conserves over 50 percent of the overall water used in a toilet to flush, he said.

Raghavendra Ramachandran, also from Bangalore, won a place in the final 15 with a project that involves re-converting the partially oxidized fuel (alcohols) into usable fuel, he added.

Sumit Singh, from Lucknow, designed a low-cost Vertical Multi-Level Farm, which could be used by small farmers to increase crop yield in agriculture and horticulture, he said.

Yamini’s project is about creating a homology model of a human receptor protein using a computer modelling programme, he said.