Young inventors

A group of students observed that during rush hours, the small-time retailers near their school often struggled to calculate bills. This set the group of young students from Abhaya School in the city, thinking of a way to help them. It soon paved way for the creation of a wearable device called V-watch. V-watch helps retailers scan bar codes and calculate bills easily. It is no surprise that this group won the second prize at the Teenovators competition conducted by Manipal University.

Under the mentorship of teacher Ameer Khan, four class X students and a class IX student joined hands to put their creative and innovative minds together to make the V-watch a reality. The Teenovators competition is open to Indian students of class IX to class XII. “The group of students from the Abhaya School were selected for their love for innovation and science. After the basic registration process, the whole screening process consisted of four rounds before the finale,” says Ameer.

“When we sat together to think what can be done to help the local vendors, the idea to create V-watch didn’t strike us. It was more of an afterthought, when we were competing at Teenovators and our mentor over there, Raunak, helped us rethink our strategy,” shares Geethika Arcot, a member of the team. She further adds, “We quickly realised the potential of a wearable device and worked towards it. We made the software for the watch, which enables it to scan the bar code and generate bills, and also a mobile application through which the retailers can operate the watch.” For the team, it was a great opportunity to learn, feels Siddhanth, another teammate. “We were one of the two schools from the city to compete at the national level. We were selected after a thorough screening from around 30 schools in the city. We got to learn a lot from the other teams and mentors at the event,” he says.

Delving into their plans further, about their creation being available for common people, Shane Stanley, a team member, elaborates, “Raunak is keen to invest in V-watch and plans to float a company soon. We all will be the shareholders until we reach a suitable age to take charge.”