Subhoda’s ingenuity

A supporting rod, conceived with love and crafted with care, wins her a Gold at Intel ISEF 2015:

by Manjula Fernando

An artless effort by Sanju Subhoda Sewwandi, a 17-year-old student from Bomiriya Central College Kaduwela, to help her temporarily disabled carpenter father move around with a degree of ease and comfort, won her world accolade at a prestigious international event in the USA last month.

Subodha’s simple invention, a supporting rod to help disable persons climb staircases, created with loving concern, beat out 1,600 high school entries from 70 countries including Japan and the USA, at the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2015, in Pittsburgh. Her gold medal not only brought prestige to Sri Lanka but also placed her right in the centre of the world spotlight as a budding inventor to be reckoned with.

Her invention was fuelled by a compelling desire to not only help her father, a small time carpenter, who fractured his leg in an accident, but also to ease the lives of the elderly and the disabled. The fact that she managed to transfer this desire into helpful reality, with a low tech material, earned her the recognition as one of the four best new inventions to win a gold medal under the Mechanical Engineering category at the Intel ISEF 2015.

The proud teenager who is ironically pursuing Arts subjects for her GCE advanced level examination visited Lake House on Thursday, to show her award winning invention and speak about her achievement, and her future. She was accompanied by her grandfather and the teacher in charge of the Young Inventor’s Club at her school.

“My dream is to show my invention to the President and the Education Minister and someday obtain a patent and ensure every disabled person in need will have access to this equipment, so that their life would be less burdensome,” an enthusiastic Subodha said.

Her invention is a supporting rod that can be secured to a staircase railing. Anyone with a walking disability as well as the elderly can use it as a support to hold on to while climbing stairs.

The first of her invention was made out of wood, but later with assistance from LPG Engineering, Bomiriya and the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD), it was upgraded to iron and finally to soft metal to make it lighter. The rod can also be used as a modified walking stick.

“My father is a carpenter. When he broke his leg I wanted to help him walk. That was how the idea of making this rod first conceived,” she says, adding that as a member of the Inventor’s Club in school, she received guidance from her Teacher in Charge, Yasawardena Saman Kumara.

Some of her competitors in Pittsburgh were aspiring rocket scientists and aeronautical engineers who in their hometowns attended the most modern schools with the latest in high tech facilities. Her work was adjudged on-site, just like the work of other competitors and she was nominated through a marking process by a team of judges who were senior professors in the field of engineering. The exhibits covered every discipline of science and the works were evaluated by the Judges in those respective disciplines.

In recognition of her invention, she received a gold medal, a certificate, a cash prize as well as US State Colours which she gets to wear proudly on her uniform. Before the Pittsburgh competition, Subhoda’s work was honoured at the Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair in March 2015, organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Engineering, National Science Foundation and the Education Ministry, as a prelude to Intel ISEF. The Intel ISEF honours the world’s most promising student scientists, inventors and engineers.

Two more students from her school, Bomiriya Central College, under the guidance of teacher in charge of the Young Inventors Club, won world recognition in 2010 for a computer mouse that can be operated by foot and a modified water bucket.

“We have so far sent 10 students to similar international competitions,” claims the proud teacher in charge. Students from grade six are allowed to take part in the Club’s activities with invention being a popular extracurricular activity among the students. He thanked the Institute of Engineers, the NERD, and other stakeholders who encouraged and facilitated Subodha’s trip to the USA to take part in Intel ISEF 2015. Altogether five students, one from Hartley College, Jaffna and three students from Gnanodaya Vidyalaya, Kalutara, who were winners of Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair also travelled to Pittsburgh with Subodha.