Teenovators Innovation Challenge 2015

What is Teenovators?

Teenovators is an initiative to foster creative thinking and innovative ideas amongst teenagers (9-12 graders). The objective is to engage students in asking intriguing questions and arriving at innovative solutions for them. The program is structured and implemented at three different levels – school-level, city-level and country-level – all of which are described below.

 

Who is behind the Teenovators idea?

Teenovators is an All-India effort by Manipal University – Karnataka to provide young minds a chance to innovate. Competing at a national level, the students and teachers are urged to deliver quality lab experiences with the available resources in their schools.

Do we have to pay an admission fee for being part of this project?

No. There is no financial transaction whatsoever between the school and the Teenovators team.

What is in it for the participating schools?

In addition to the prize money of Rs. 300,000 for the first-prize winning team, Teenovators offers:
Students

• An opportunity to explore and enhance their creativity through an explorative project
• A platform to understand the real world problems and possible ways to solve them
• The recognition that can be leveraged in future to get admission into reputed colleges (Manipal Group Certificates for participants and Awards for prize winners)
• A potential access to the world-renowned Manipal University higher education programs
•  Access to industry and domain experts and mentors for academic and career advice

Teachers,

• A platform to use innovative instructional approaches in guiding students through the project
• Access to industry and domain experts for deeper understanding of industry perspectives
• The recognition for further advancement in their profession

School Management,

• An opportunity to associate and collaborate with the world renowned Manipal group of universities
• Recognition with the press and the school fraternity
•  An opportunity to engage students in an extra-curricular learning platform

Can you show us a few sample projects?

Students can choose from a wide ranging list of topics including Behavioral & Social Sciences, Earth and Environmental Science, Engineering, Math & Comp Science, Physical Science, and Life Sciences. A detailed list of topics is hosted on this page – http://www.teenovators.com/competition-format.aspx. Ranging from creating an eco-friendly mechanical pump to developing an alternative traffic management system, students have come up with brilliant solutions to problems in the real world.

Below are some examples:

• Reach Home Faster – Students from Air Force School, Hebbal proposed using mobile phone radio waves to identify traffic hot spots, which the commuters could avoid and thus reach home faster.
• Ultimate Power Car – (Second Prize winner, 2014)-With the demand for fuel increasing by the day and the supply diminishing even faster, the students from Saraswathi Vidyalaya High School, Mumbai proposed a car that could run on salt.
• Eco-friendly pump -(First prize winner, 2014)-Demand for electricity in irrigation is a bane of the farming sector in India. Sri Gayathri Junior College, Hyderabad think a water pump that can function on magnets is the answer.
• Smart traffic Management -(1st runner up, 2014)-VKR Acharya School, Udupi build a model using the GPS in cars to devise a system of sensors and lights that will deliver a smart traffic management solution.

Who can participate in this? What are the other requirements?

Teenagers – Students in the age bracket of 13 to 19 years (Essentially, 9th – 12th graders)Schools need to give their consent to conduct ‘Innovation Challenge’ in their campuses.From Inter-city challenge onwards, schools should get consent from the parents of participants.Team Size should be 5 students per team.

Does a teacher need to be part of this?

It is mandatory for one teacher from each school to be nominated by the school as ‘the guide’. The
teacher will be the liaison between the school and Teenovators Management team.

What are the three challenges of the Teenovators program?

Preliminary Challenge – A total of 400 schools participate from across the country at the preliminary level. Each student participant takes up the ‘Teenovators Quotient Test’ (TQT) in their respective schools to qualify for the further levels of the program. In addition to this, each team of 5 students will submit a project proposal on the idea they will be working on (guidelines will be provided for creating the project proposal) within the first two weeks of the school signing off for this project.

Inter City Challenge–Out of the 400 proposals received, 100 are shortlisted to progress to the next level. At this stage, fairness will be ensured by allowing each city to have equal representation, so the top 12 schools from each city will be selected. These 100 will submit a poster about the project idea they will be working on. 24 out of these 100 teams will also be selected to participate in the INK Live conference in Mumbai which is scheduled to happen on October 16, 17 & 18 2015.

National Challenge – Based on the 100 posters presented, the top 8 teams will be selected and asked to prepare a prototype of the project they have proposed. The teams will travel to Manipal University, Manipal to present their prototypes for the final level.

How many schools will we be competing with?

400 schools across 8 cities in India will be participating in the project.

How many hours in a week do we have to spend on this?

Although there is no set time limit, either minimum or maximum, the following time range is a fairly
accurate guideline:

• Teachers – 1-2 hours a week
• Students – 4-5 hours a week

Will this affect the academic responsibilities of our students and teachers?

From our experience and the anecdotal evidence of students and teachers from the past years of this project, the academic performance and responsibilities of participants are not affected by this project.

Are we capable of innovating and competing at this level?

The other participating schools, in the past and this year, have similar demographic and psychographic characteristics in terms of their students and teachers. So, you are absolutely capable of participating in the project. The highlight of this project is how it unleashes the latent innovative potential of your students and teachers with the inputs of industry mentors and the Teenovators Management team.

What support system can we expect from you to pursue this project?

Mentor -A dedicated mentor from the industry is assigned to each team/project. The mentor guides the teams through conceptualization, planning and execution of the project. Additionally, they add value with their invaluable industry experience that throws light on the students’ knowledge of real life situations.

Coordinator – The Teenovators Management team will appoint a coordinator for each city to work with the teachers and students and to ensure that roadblocks are cleared and suitable guidance is offered at every step of the project.

What will you do after collecting data of our students?

The scores secured by the students will be shared with you and based on that, you can form the team from your school. We are also correcting the papers using a technology which will automatically send out the scores to students on their email.

How will this help our children?

As far as the ICT is concerned, it will make students aware of how strong are their innovative skills are and help them develop the same. Students who are innovative would get more exposure, mentoring and visibility. Then one-member from the team and one faculty member (on first come basis) would be invited to INK Live in Mumbai where they would be showcasing their innovation before eminent speakers and attendees of the INK Conference. (with all expenses covered)