BENGALURU: Fourteen-year-old Bengaluru boy Rahul Maru is trying to find a solution to the problem of waste being dumped in lakes by mimicking nature after being inspired by Jay Harman, an Australian inventor.
Rahul presented his design at the Reimagine Waste Hackathon that took place at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) recently, and will also take part in a 45-day challenge as part of the event, to get his ideas finetuned.
Jay Harman is the inventor of the ‘Lily Impeller’, a water propeller designed in the shape of the calla lily. The device mimics the spiral movement of whirlpools and tornadoes and is used to gain maximum efficiency while mixing liquids. Using this design, Rahul has ridding the city’s lakes of waste.
“The idea is that when the impeller rotates, it creates a whirlpool that will suck all the garbage and waste in the water towards it. A net contraption on top of it will trap all this waste. The original device uses a 200-watt motor, and is able to circulate 40 million litres of water while being energy efficient,” says Rahul
Rahul went to Halasuru Lake for a recce as part of a team in the hackthon to study how exactly the device would be useful. “I tried out a prototype of this device in my swimming pool as well. The problem was that the net trap for the waste, which is shaped like an upside-down umbrella, also rotated along with the device. So I have to take it apart and rework it. I am looking forward to improving the design in the 45-day challenge,” he says. A mentor in the hackathon gave him the impeller to work with.
Rahul’s partner was another Bengaluru boy, Tejas, who he met at the hackathon while teams were being formed.Rahul is homeschooled, and also has a website developing business of his own called Spider Developers.”I already have three clients,” adds Rahul.His father Sanjay Maru is a financial consultant. He says, “We want Rahul’s ideas to lead to some kind of workable solution,” he adds.