Around September last year, Sri Sri Academy student Rishav Majumder released how there was hardly any social distancing among people as they travelled or commuted to work. He had stepped out after months to visit his grandmother when the crowd at the bus stop scared him.

The realisation egged him on to design a device that will force people to maintain the right social distance among each other during the pandemic. What helped him work on his dream project was the knowledge gathered at the Atal Tinkering Laboratory in his school.

More than six months later, the Class IX student presented his innovative idea online to over 300 students and teachers online during an event – Atal Community Day — organised by his school on April 24.

Dis-Robo – as his idea is called – has been shortlisted as one of the best innovative projects by his school. It also won him the Inspire Manak Award from the Union government’s science and technology department.

Rishav is planning on a lightweight device that can be easily strapped to belts and handbags. “Its sensors will send a message to the users on their smartphone, if a person is standing too close. A buzzer will go off if someone is standing less than 6ft away from the user. This way the spread of infection can be checked anywhere,” said Rishav as he thanked his school for encouraging him to innovate and pushing him to tinker with sensors and controllers.

“I had wanted to build a drone once but could not because of the lack of funds. I now plan to build a prototype of this device at my home and see how it works,” said Rishav, who dreams of being an artificial intelligence scientist.

The ATL lab, set-up on the seventh floor of the school since 2018, is a favourite place for students at Sri Sri Academy right from Class VI. “The lab is full of hi-tech contemporary software circuits, 3D models, micro-controllers and electrical components that encourage students to innovate, practise and tinker. Every class gets to spend time at the lab once a week. The really interested ones are given more time. Since the pandemic the classes have shifted online,” said lab in-charge Abhishek Biswas.

The Atal Community Day – held over two Saturdays had students and teachers of Sri Sri Academy holding workshops and talking about innovative ideas and softwares with schools such as Mahadevi Birla World Academy, DPS Howrah, DPS Ruby Park and many others on YouTube live. At the inaugural session, Hansrudh Gupta of Class X also shared with the audience how his Childcare app will help keep tabs on the students’ mental health. The latter can answer questions on their mental health and book appointments with the school counsellor through the app.

Principal Suvina Shunglu is all for giving education a practical turn. “I wanted to make lessons more skill-based for all my students. So, five years ago we started a design lab where children were asked to come up with practical solutions to problems. We started using wood to build stuff in the lab. The interest was stupendous. Three years ago, we started the tinkering lab to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among the children. Often, they have mentors from various institutions guiding them. We find many students naturally interested in designing apps. Even now, they continue to work from home. We are also ready to help them build prototypes.” she said.