Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. February 11 is the day to eulogize Indian/Indian-origin women and girls’ contributions and achievements in different disciplines of science. From Anandi Gopal Joshi – the first Indian woman to study medicine in the USA, to Kalpana Chawla – the first Indian-origin woman in space, TIME’s Kid of the Year Gitanjali Rao – America’s Top Young Scientist in 2017, to California’s ‘Human Calculator’ Apoorva Panidapu, and two Indian American girls among the World Science Foundation Scholars in 2019, women of different age groups have been taking science and technology by storm.

Laalitya Acharya, 17, from Ohio is one of the eight Indian American teens among the 40 finalists of the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021. What brought her this honor and earned her a scholarship of $25,000 is a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution that she has invented to address one of the most common issues in not only developing countries, but in developed nations like the USA. It is contaminated drinking water that more than 30 million Americans grappled with in violation of their right to a healthy life under the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to a 2018 study by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Picture Credit: LaalityaAcharya.com

A trip to her native village in India revealed to Laalitya Acharya how damaging the health impact of exposure to contaminated drinking water could be. She noticed that many people were suffering from stomach flu and other physical ailments due to prolonged intake of contaminated water. She herself had fallen ill. A little study on India’s looming water crisis pulled up some disturbing facts to her dismay, including that nearly 75 million people in the country had no access to safe drinking water in 2017. Even the basic facilities to examine whether the water they were consuming was too contaminated to drink were beyond their reach.

Indian American Laalitya Acharya’s device named Nereid uses AI technology to detect contaminants in water. The portable device is basically a microscopic camera that clicks images of a water sample, which are then analyzed using AI technology to determine whether the water is safe or contaminated. The findings can be transmitted from the device to a local lab or water plant for further testing of the water sample if necessary. The device is so feasible that it can be easily integrated into a water system. She is currently working with the local administration to make the device accessible to households in her hometown so that the shortage of safe drinking water and the incidence of water-borne diseases can be reduced significantly.

At the age of 13, Laalitya Acharya happened to be one among the finalists of Discovery Education’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2017. Her idea to generate electricity from vehicular traffic can make clean energy affordable in developing countries where many underprivileged children study under streetlight. Bypass surgery is her favorite invention of the past 100 years. It was the beginning of her tryst with international-level science competitions, including the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Notably, she was a national finalist at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

She says, “Science and scientific experimentation is not a linear process, it is a webbed pathway that takes you through many different routes before you get to the end.” Being an advocate of STEM, she loves mentoring children in STEM.

On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Travel Beats – a leading Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel – chose to celebrate Laalitya Acharya and her progressive journey in science. Subscribe to our free newsletter and tune to our Facebook page for upcoming stories of Indians in America, updates on US immigration and visa, and latest US-India travel news.

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While we’re not yet done celebrating Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee’s entry to the elite club of Nobel Laureates in the world, two Indian American teenagers’ award-winning, environment-friendly inventions are ample reasons for us to have a double pre-Diwali celebration. Neil Deshmukh and Maanasa Mendu are named among the 25 outstanding young leaders for the Gloria Barron Prize 2019.

16-year-old Neil Deshmukh of Pennsylvania has won the Gloria Barron Prize 2019 for his free app “PlantumAI” that he created to help poor farmers and save water bodies in developing countries like India. Available for free, the app works offline to help farmers reduce the use of toxic pesticides in fields and detect various crop diseases, even in far-flung areas of rural India.

During his trip to India in 2016, Neil Deshmukh learned how atmospheric extremes and whimsical weather are taking a toll on farmers’ hard work at his grandfather’s farm in Maharashtra. Farmers were struggling to reap maximum yields by using pesticides to save crops from seasonal diseases. The toxic residues of the pesticides used in fields ended up polluting countryside water bodies – the elixir of cultivation for farmers.

Neil took a flight from Pennsylvania to India in 2018 after developing the app “PlantumAI” and ran a pilot test at his family farm. He partnered with plant pathologists and botanists at Akola Agriculture University, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, to educate farmers on how to use the app and why. While the Indian American teen continues fine-tuning the app, more than 1000 crop diseases in India have been identified and studied so far using the app.

“My dream is to impact lives positively using artificial intelligence and data crowd-sourcing to make the world a better place for everyone, irrespective of their socio-economic status,” said Neil Deshmukh, the Gloria Barron Prize 2019 winner. He is currently helping the farmers of 12 villages across Maharashtra maximize healthy crop yields.

Another Gloria Barron Prize 2019 winner of Indian origin, Maanasa Mendu needs no introduction. Named America’s Top Young Scientist in 2016, Maanasa Mendu from Ohio has developed a cost-effective, renewable energy device named HARVEST using recycled materials. Just three hours of charging is enough for her device to power a 15-watt bulb.

An advocate of renewable energy, Maanasa Mendu owes her invention HARVEST to her roots in rural India where many households are exposed to the environmental hazards of using kerosene lamps due to daily electrical blackouts. During one of her trips to India, she felt the urge to empower those households with a low-cost device using renewable energy.

She spent three years designing several different prototypes of HARVEST and conducting about 1200 trials. The latest version of Maanasa Mendu’s HARVEST features energy-harvesting leaves which, when exposed to sunlight or wind or precipitation, produce an electrical charge. Her invention is modeled on the piezoelectric effect – the ability of certain energy-harvesting materials.

16-year-old Maanasa Mendu is also a budding philanthropist. She spends a portion of her scholarships and cash prizes from various science competitions to help run the Maruthi Foundation in India. The nonprofit provides the needy students with educational opportunities.

She is trying every possible way to make HARVEST available globally as a Do-It-Yourself kit. “I’ve also learned that you’re never too young or too old or too inexperienced to see a problem in the world and try to solve it,” says Maanasa.

Travel Beats, a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, strives to promote achievements of young Indians in USA. Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel booking partner of Indians in America, not only helps you travel on cheap last-minute flights to India but also shares latest updates on visa, immigration, Indian passport and major airlines.

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‘Humanity is dead.’ We see this note of criticism and disgust spewed on social media by netizens across geographies even in response to the least important incidents of apathy in any part of the world. But, humanity is not dead. Rather, few people make sure to keep it alive in different forms such as compassion, empathy, mercy, benevolence and selflessness. In a recent instance of humanity, Indian American Jay Singh, in the US state of Ohio, took a corrective measure instead of a punitive action for teaching a lesson to a teen thief in his store.

Jay Singh, who owns and runs a 7-Eleven store in Toledo in Ohio, has become an inspiring figure after the locals went gaga over what he did to a teen boy upon discovering the teenager’s act of thieving in his store on the night of April 6.

Picture credit: CBS News

At his 7-Eleven store in Toledo, Jay Singh spotted a boy, who pretended to be a customer, and observed his suspicious behavior for some time. He saw the boy putting some stuff into his pockets, as reported by CBS News. He caught the thieving teenager red-handed and asked an employee to call 911.

When caught, the boy felt unnerved and said that he would put the stolen stuff back. Jay Singh told him to put the things on the counter so that he could see what the boy had stolen. On discovering that the stolen stuff was nothing but food, Jay Singh wondered, “Why was he stealing?”

On being interrogated, the teen boy said that he was hungry, and that he was stealing some food for himself and his younger brother. The moment the 7-Eleven storeowner Jay Singh got to know the reason, he stopped his employee from calling 911.

“You need food? I will give you food. That’s not a problem,” Jay said to the boy out of compassion for him and his brother.

Jay thought for a while that if the boy were handed over to the cops, he would be a thief on the police record forever, and that his life would deteriorate further leaving him without a good job. He realized that punishment would not correct the teen; it would rather perpetuate his misery.

On seeing no point in meting out punishment to the teenager for the thieving act, Jay took a corrective step. He filled a bag with food and gave it to the boy for free.

On being asked by CBS News why he took pity on the boy, Indian American Jay Singh said, “Giving food to the hungry is a fundamental Indian value, and it’s believed that the Almighty will bless you for such acts of kindness.”

This story is brought to you by Indian Eagle, a most trusted air travel booking partner of Indians in the US. Indian Eagle not only strives to offer the cheapest economy fare deals for flights to India, but also gives a shout out to inspiring stories of Indians in America. 

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Be it the Obama regime or the Trump administration, the US Presidential Scholars Program continues to be significant. It is one of the prestigious awards given to graduating high school seniors for their academic achievements, artistic accomplishments, leadership traits, excellence in community service and remarkable outreach initiatives. Indian American student Shreyah Mohanselvan has been nominated for the 2018 US Presidential Scholars Program in the Arts.

Shreyah Mohanselvan, a resident of New Albany in Ohio, is one of the 60 talented high school seniors and budding artists nominated from 25 states for the 2018 US Presidential Scholars Program. A student of Columbus Academy, Shreyah Mohanselvan has been nominated for her accomplishments in the Indian classical dance discipline by the National Young Arts Foundation.

All of the 60 nominees for the award in the arts are called YoungArts winners, who include writers, actors, filmmakers, singers, dancers, visual artists, classical musicians and photographers. 20 out of the 60 will be selected as US Presidential Scholars in the Arts and felicitated at the National Recognition Program in Washington DC on June 20, 2018. They, along with the other 141 US Presidential Scholars in various fields other than arts, will receive a Presidential Medallion.

Among the nominees for the 2018 US Presidential Scholars in the Arts, Ohio-based Shreyah Mohanselvan is equally talented in science, engineering and performing arts. Being an aspiring dancer, she has attained outstanding prowess in five different dance forms including ballet and classical Indian dance. She is a competent violinist too. She is a student orientation leader for the Columbus Academy Advanced Orchestra.

“Dance is not just my passion but a fascination to me. I gave in to my obsession with dancing at the age of four. I started with ballet at the New Albany Ballet Company and went on to learn Indian classical dance forms including Bharatanatyam,” Shreyah said to Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal owned by Indian Eagle. Undeniably, dancing is her comfort zone and favorite stress buster.

At the same time, Indian American Shreyah Mohanselvan is a member of the Science Olympiad team, and the robotics team at Columbus Academy. She immensely helped the robotics team with building and designing of the docking system. She was also designated the Student Council President at Columbus Academy in 2017.

Shreyah owes her nomination for the 2018 US Presidential Scholars Award to Carolina García Jayaram, President and CEO of the Miami-based National YoungArts Foundation which is one of the partners for this National Recognition Program.

Also Check: Two Indian American Girls Recite Gita Slokas from Memory

“At the National YoungArts Foundation, we identify, encourage and support talented young artists in the arts. We are more than happy to have nominated the most accomplished 60 high school seniors for the 2018 US Presidential Scholars Program in the Arts,” said Carolina García Jayaram.

The nation is looking forward to the curtain-raising ceremony at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC where the nominees including Shreyah Mohanselvan will showcase their artistic skills on June 20.

This news story of Shreyah Mohanselvan is part of our continued effort at Indian Eagle to promote the achievements of Indian Americans and young Indians worldwide. Subscribe to our free newsletter for inspiring stories of young Indians in USA.

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Indian American Community may be one of the minorities in the United States (1% of total US population), but it significantly contributes to the US economy. That’s why President Donald Trump acknowledged during his first Diwali celebration in the White House on October 17 and at the National Minority Enterprise Development Week Awards event on October 24, 2017. Two Indian American entrepreneurs received the National Minority Business Awards 2017 from Trump in the White House.

Sharad Thakkar, the President of Polymer Technologies in Ohio, and Karan Arora, the CEO of Natural Vitamins Laboratory in Florida were on President Trump’s list of nine minority businesses for their contributions to the socio-economic progress of the USA. Natural Vitamins Labs’ director Karan Arora received the Minority Export Firm of the Year 2017, and Sharad Thakkar’s Polymer Technologies was recognized with the Minority Energy Company of the Year 2017.

“There are 996,246 minority-owned businesses in the USA, which employ 8 million people and generate over $1 trillion of annual revenues. Only 22% of the total minority businesses have 10 or more paid employees. The work you do and the products and services you bring into this world generate new prosperity across America. For that, we are in your debt,” said Trump at the National Minority Enterprise Development Week Awards 2017 in the White House.

Based in Miami, Karan Arora is the director and CEO of the family-owned Natural Vitamins Laboratory, a name of international repute, which exports its health products to more than 40 overseas markets across the globe. The business has grown and evolved over the past 25 years of experience. Currently, Natural Vitamins Laboratory operates from a 95,000 square feet facility in Miami, Florida. Karan shifted to the United States from Mumbai for higher studies.

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Ohio-based Sharad Thakkar’s Polymer Technologies recycles plastic waste from the industry manufacturing plastic products to convert it into valuable raw material. A recipient of the Minority Energy Company of the Year, Polymer Technologies provides long-term solutions in automotive, home care and lawn care product lines.

Indian American businessman Sharad Thakkar originally belongs to Baroda or Vadodara in the Indian state of Gujarat. He came to the USA around 30 years ago.

Both winners of the National Minority Business Awards 2017, Karan Arora and Sharad Thakkar expressed their faith in President Donald Trump’s new policies for simplifying the tax code for minority businesses in America. They said that President Trump’s tax reform measures would not only streamline the overall process but also pump more money into businesses.

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Yesterday, the Discovery Education Network announced the winner of the title “America’s Top Young Scientist” of 2016 and a scholarship worth $25,000 to the bated breath of the nation after three days of scientific challenges during the grand finale in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The winner is Maanasa Mendu, a 13-year-old Indian American girl from Mason, Ohio. She won the Young Scientist Challenge 2016 for her cost-effective device to generate electricity from wind power in an eco-friendly way. This eight-grade student of William Mason High School gave the Indian American community another reason for celebration this Diwali.

Maanasa Mendu ideated a solution on learning that America gets only 4% of its total energy from wind power. She developed the solution into a biocompatible device after her return from a trip to India where she discovered the lack of basic needs such as electricity and clean water in the everyday lives of many people to her utter surprise. (Watch a video of her invention below)

This is what inspired her to participate in the competition, keep faith in her invention and become the top young scientist of America. She named the device Harvest since it is built to harness solar and wind power to provide cost-effective energy. The invention is aligned with the challenge of applying science and technology to make everyday life more convenient for communities across the globe.

13-year-old Indian American Maanasa Mendu gave a demonstration of her critical thinking, logical creativity and the application of science behind her energy-sourcing device to a panel of scientists and leaders including Bill Goodwyn, the President and CEO of Discovery Education. She left other nine finalists of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2016 in the competition.

Among the remaining nine finalists, Rohan Wagh from Portland stood second in the competition for his low-maintenance device to create energy by increasing the natural metabolism of bacteria in underdeveloped countries. The fifth position went to Meghna Behari from Pennsylvania for her innovative device to reach waterways which are not easy to access.

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Indian American writers are on a roll! Amit Majmudar, an Indian American novelist, poet and essayist, became Ohio’s first Poet Laureate in Columbus. Amit Majmudar dons several hats at the same time. He is a creative writer on one hand and a diagnostic nuclear radiologist on the other. Ohio’s Governor John Kasich publicly announced his appointment as the first poet laureate of the state.

Amit Majmudar’s appointment as Ohio’s poet laureate will be effective on January 1 for two years from 2016 till December 31, 2017. In honor of this prestigious title, he wishes to promote poetry by all possible means. He looks forward to taking a multidimensional approach to connect poetry with Ohio’s popular arts community. His plans to heighten the prospects of poetry in Ohio do also include reaching out high school students and engaging them in different ways.

“The profile of Ohio’s first poet laureate exemplifies that both profession and passion can go hand in hand. He will put a new perspective into the future of poetry for today’s young generation who can pursue their passions irrespective of their career choices,” said Ohio’s Governor ebulliently.

Amit Majmudar graduated in science from the University of Akron and earned a ‘Doctor of Medicine’ (MD) degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University. On completion of his full-time medical residency at university hospitals of Cleveland where he was brought up, he started practicing in Columbus. He specializes in nuclear medicine.

Ohio’s first poet laureate, Amit Majmudar developed a tryst with poetry many years before his first novel was published. His poetry found space in several reputed publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Antioch Review, Poetry Northeast, Poetry Daily, and The Best of the Best American Poetry. He is equally acclaimed in writing essays and literary criticism which were published in the New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and National Poetry Review.

Amit Majmudar owes his international fame to his debut novel “Partitions” (published in 2009), which was followed by “The Abundance” in 2011. The first novel “Partitions” is a poignant story of uprooted children and their eventful journey during the Partition of India in 1947, with references to communal violence on both sides of the then new India-Pakistan border. The tale of broken hearts and scattered families won millions of minds, which got him entry into the league of novelists with a powerful voice.

The second novel “The Abundance” is a story of immigration and its pathetic outcomes including cultural conflict. It is no less poignant than the story of “Partitions.” Amit Majmudar’s next piece of creative writing is a collection of poems, “Dothead,” which will see the daylight in March 2016.

Recently, Indian American comedian Mindy Kaling’s “Why Not Me” has been on Amazon’s list of top 100 Books in 2015. Mindy Kaling’s second book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me,” (published in 2001) was a New York Times bestseller. – IndianEagle

Travel Beats, a digital portal for Indian diaspora by IndianEagle, publishes the latest news and stories about India, USA, Canada and NRIs. IndianEagle is a leading U.S. based travel organization book travel to India at the best prices.     

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Do you know when and where the world’s first traffic light was installed? Cleveland in the North American state of Ohio was the first city to have got the world’s first electric traffic signal on August 5, 1914. The pair of green and red lights at crossroads of major streets, which came to be known as traffic signal and made traffic control a lot easier across the world completed its 101^st anniversary today. A simple scientific experiment to automate traffic control became a technological breakthrough in the history of innovation. Indian Eagle traces the history of traffic signals back to 1868.

The design of the first traffic light is credited to Lester Wire, a Salt Lake City cop, whose idea of traffic control automation evolved into a momentous solution. Technically, it was London and Utah, not Cleveland, where manually operated traffic control systems were initiated but for a temporary period. It relieved traffic policemen of long hours of standing at intersections. The first electric traffic signal on one side of Euclid Avenue and East 105^th Street in Cleveland transformed the ways of public life on roads across the globe.

The oldest electric traffic signal system is on display at a museum in Ashville, Ohio. Its installation cost $1,500 in 1914.

There was no yellow light in the first design. A series of buzzes and bells would mark the change of blue light into red light and vice versa. James Hope proposed to add a bell to the invention and suggested a way for manipulation of the lights by police in emergency cases. It eased the day-to-day lives of Americans by having transformed traffic chaos into controlled traffic movement, in pace with the wheels of civilization.

In 1920, yellow light was added to the first electric traffic signal in Cleveland. The traffic signal with yellow light was introduced to other cities including New York and Philadelphia. Booths were installed at an elevated level on one side of the intersections with traffic signals. A human operator was deployed in each booth to flip switching red and green lights. It brought respite to traffic police officers from the ordeal of standing long hours and suffering from vehicular emissions amidst crowds.

Interesting facts about traffic Light Signal 

Automobiles began to hit roads in the U.S. in the 1900s. Owing to no system to control the pace of vehicles and ensure convenience of pedestrians, the vehicles running at breakneck speed caused deaths and crashes leading to roadblocks, which consequently drove the police to get into traffic regulation. In 1903, the police implemented a set of driving rules drafted by William Phelps Eno, a New York businessman, in many American cities. Other suggestions by him were traffic circles, one-way streets and pedestrian crosswalks.

Following William Phelps Eno’s idea of installing a post in the center of each intersection, New York City installed several posts with a sign conveying “Keep right,” which were referred to as “silent policemen”. Other American cities got the same infrastructure to control the pace of automobiles on their streets. These silent policemen fell short of applying brake to the rushing vehicles at busier intersections in downtown. Policemen of flesh and blood were deployed to control vehicular traffic with hand signals at those intersections.

London was far ahead of American cities in the history of traffic signals. London had got its first traffic signal using red and green gaslights at night, in 1868. It was inspired by a gas light installed to control horse traffic outside the Houses of Parliament. As there was no electricity, a police officer had to change lights manually. One night it burst out due to gas leak causing injuries to the operator after a month of use. Evidently, it was abandoned. England got its first electric traffic lights in 1926.

Traffic lights in the United States have been equipped with countdown timer to lessen the number of mishaps to pedestrians since the 1990s. The first traffic light with countdown timer was installed in Hampton, Virginia, in 1996. The use of countdown timers was a success in decreasing the number of accidents by 52%.

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