Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Mar 8: Mohammed Suhail C S (18) has already shot to fame because of his innovative research. The teenager from here is a researcher in his own right, besides being an entrepreneur. He has received the highly acclaimed Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar for children backed by excellent research.
This teen from Mangaluru is already a researcher, entrepreneur, and a recipient of the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya of Bal Puraskar (National Child Awards For Exceptional Achievement that he was awarded recently. Suhail has won this award for developing a non-invasive and predictive method of diagnosing pre-symptomatic protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) with the help of paper strips which cost barely two rupees a piece.
PEM is a form of malnutrition which happens because of lack of dietary protein.
Suhail grew up at Srirangapatna in Mandya district. He got interested in studying large number of books possessed by his parents when young by finishing reading a book per day.
Suhail is interested in several subjects including Yoga, singing, writing, Karate, and chess among others. He got particularly interested after visiting exhibitions held around his place. Later, he shifted base to Mangaluru, where he developed the practice of studying the working of prototypes on display. He got curious about everything and questioned the concerned till he got to know the issue entirely.
After his parents gave him a laptop with internet connection, he could study science in depth. He confesses that internet taught him most of the things he knows now.
He conceived the project, 'Let's Walk to Generate Electricity' when he was 14. He created a working model of 40x40 piezo-electric tile which generated electricity when people step on the tile. He installed this tile at Historic Gumbaz at Srirangapatna. As visitors stepped on the tile, power generated out of it would lit up a number of lights in this Tipu Sultan memorial. "When one walks on piezo-electric panel, the transducers placed inside the mat lost shape and regain it. The electrons which flow generate power which can be stored in a battery and then used for different purposes," he explains. This kind of generation of power is very cost-effective.
This innovation won over 50 awards for Suhail. He was inspired to undertake research on malnutrition after watching the video of a researcher sometime back. The talk of the speaker, Dr Manu Prakash, who was giving the address at the Science and Engineering Fair, inspired him to undertake research. Dr Prakash is a biophysicist with interest and stellar achievements in the field of manufacturing affordable tools for disease diagnosis.
Suhail, who found that one in five children in the world is malnourished, was overwhelmed by the investment made to combat this problem. He found that low-cost, non-invasive measures to detect malnutrition were non-existent. He also found that all the children suffering from malnutrition do not require the same diet, which the government provided as per its policy. He wanted to avoid blood tests to identify malnutrition and came up with paper strip for testing, which automatically also addressed the problem of handling huge medical waste created in traditional methods of diagnosis.
The paper strip is dampened with the saliva of the child concerned. If the colour of the paper changes, it indicates that the child lacks proteins and nutrients. Suhail later also developed a mobile app for scanning the paper to show percentage of protein or level of malnutrition. The biomarker in saliva is matched with the level of protein in the blood. Suhail explains that this method costs two rupees and takes only two minutes to complete. He is thankful to Dr Sindhu Priya, Dr Sudhakar Prasad, Dr Rekha P D and Sonia Joseph of Yenepoya University for helping him with the research. He says he does not exploit commercial potential of the tool but wants it to be freely available to people.
Recognition came to Suhail in the form of naming a morning star after him by the International Astronomical Union after MIT Lincoln Laboratory recognized his contribution and invention.
Suhail insists on setting high goals and taking quick decisions.