White House honour for Bengaluru boy

Bengaluru: An innovative mobile Makerspace that promises to brighten the lives of chronically ill children on Monday won Gokul Krishnan, a PhD student in the Learning Sciences at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Development in the US, White House honours.

“It was exciting to create awareness about learning opportunities in hospital settings and trying to give children with chronic illnesses a new hope," says an elated Gokul, 33, who hails from Bengaluru. His journey began in 2013 with a leukemia patient. "I met Brandon, who wanted to be an engineer, and gave him a ‘mystery box’ with some electronic equipment. He created a night light that would alert a nurse without disturbing other patients. That inspired me to engage with other children with chronic illnesses, and eventually the mobile Makerspace."

The mobile Makerspace -- a metal cart filled with equipment for small-scale engineering projects -- provides children with a creative outlet, encourages social interchange and improves patient healthcare by increasing physical mobility.

His research has a long way to go, he admits, adding that he is all set to start a new position at the New York Hall of Science as a research fellow to scale up his idea. "I have just scratched the surface in trying to understand how learning takes place in a hospital setting. It will need a life time of research, and I will dedicate my life to creating new learning experiences for such children."

"I told my mom that I want to have the mobile Makerspace in hospitals across India. No child should miss out on the maker mentality," Gokul says.