Berhampur: Averron Maverick, Vidya Vihar Educational Academy of Bihar secured the top position in the Science Talent Search (NSTS-2023), a national level contest for school and higher secondary students organised by NIST (Autonomous), Berhampur from May to October. The theme for this year was ‘Sustainable Innovation’.
School and college students from across the country participated in this contest in three levels, and the three best winners in each of Senior and Junior categories were awarded on October 18.
In Senior category, Averron Maverick, Vidya Vihar Educational Academy of Bihar who stood first, received a cash award of Rs 1 lakh and Vidha Aziz Public School Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh Rs 50,000 and SOS Senior, SOS Village, Guwahati Rs 25,000 for securing second and third positions respectively.
In Junior category, Obestress Alerter, DAV Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar, Odisha stood first and received Rs 30,000, Renew Desal, Sarala Birla, Guwahati in Assam stood second and received Rs 20,000 and Coder’s Spot, DAV Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar stood third and received Rs 10,000.
Total 550 teams registered on an online portal at www.nist.edu/talentsearch and 53 ideas were shortlisted by a team of experts after scrutiny. These teams were mentored by a pool of eminent professors and industry experts.
In the screening round, the teams presented their ideas through video-conferencing and 18 teams were selected for physical presentation before the jury in the final event.
The jury included Bijan Das, former deputy director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre ISRO; Sunil Kumar Sarangi, former director, NIT, Rourkela; Prasanta Kumar Panigrahi, director, IISER, Kolkata and Prabuddha Ranjan Mohanty, former chairman, Heavy Water Board Department of Atomic Energy.
Founder chairman Sukant Kumar Mahapatro inaugurated online. Principal in-charge Bishnukar Nayak delivered the opening address while HR and Admin Head Sayad Suleman Ali welcomed the dignitaries.
The event was followed by a visit to the Buddhist monastery at Jeerango in Gajapati District where the participants interacted with the elders of the settlement to understand how they adapted to the region with minimal resources after migrating from Ladakh and their best practices in water management, cropping, energy production, marketing and skilling etc.
