All that extra time in the pandemic has led to a lot of innovations and experimentations across all age groups. One such instance is of this quintet of Class 10 girls from Shiv Nadar School. They have created SAFE, a self-sanitising bench installed with UV sterilising light that can reduce the risk of transmitting infections like Viral Conjunctivitis, Influenza and Hepatitis A, besides Covid-19.
Made under the Capstone Project, the bench was exhibited at the annual tech event Colloquium 2020 of the school. Now, the five students – Nirvani Jain, Arshia Jaitli, Suhani Sharma, Gurnoor Kaur, and Mansi Aggarwal – plan to install such benches in and around the school premises in Faridabad.
“A prototype has already been installed and is waiting to be tested at a large scale. The students are looking forward to reactions from their peers and working towards a Version 2.0,” says IT Head and mentor Mark Nelson.
Due to the restricted movement and limited outdoor activity in pandemic, shares Nirvani, they thought of creating something that could help in sanitisation and safety in the outdoor spaces. “Collectively, we felt a sanitising bench was the best contribution for helping people using public space across hospitals, parks, malls, and other outdoor areas,” adds Mansi.
The bench has ultrasonic sensors that automatically switch on once the user gets off, and starts off an automatic sanitisation process through the UV light. Suhani explains that the UV light is placed underneath the bench:
“Currently, we are using ultrasonic sensors to detect the human presence to rotate the bench automatically as our app is under development.” Till then, Arshia informs that the bench can be rotated manually using a foot pedal. Meanwhile, some part of the digital process is functional. “The bench also has a QR code that gives the exact date and time of the last sanitisation process.
The QR code on the bench can be used to download or access the webpage without downloading the app,” she adds. The school encourages students to ideate and create a reasonably priced and economically viable, and creative solution to a real-world issue.
Gurnoor says, “Our motive was to make something for people who venture out to feel safe if they needed to sit and relax. We wanted to do our bit in helping ease the fear of people of contracting Covid-19 while being outdoors. We completed the project in 10 months by coordinating over Zoom and Google Meets, and going to school in turns.”