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Indian siblings place fifth in Inventions Challenge

Shanthi Shankarkumar

Amit Behal, 14, of Naperville, Illinois, had his diabetes diagnosed when he was just 7. He has learned to live with it, but he is aware that many diabetics can drift into a coma and even die in their sleep if their sugar levels go dangerously low. There have been mornings when he himself has woken up with low blood sugar levels. "Diabetes has in a way affected my life. I've to stop what I'm doing at times and I've to watch what I eat. Otherwise I lead a normal life," said Amit.

So naturally, his interest in diabetes inspired his and his sister Anjali Behal's entry for the eighteenth Annual Duracell/NSTA [National Science Teachers Association] Inventions Challenge. The invention won the duo fifth place from a record 1,953 entries this year. Amit, a tenth-grader at the Illinois Math and Science Academy (a school for gifted children) and Anjali, 12, a seventh-grader at Jefferson Junior High School, devised the Diabetes Sentry Bracelet that can detect a condition called hypoglycaemia or low blood sugar. A $500 saving bond was also awarded to them.

Amit and Anjali were two of the seven Indians among the 100 finalists. "We know that diabetes is a big problem and many people die in their sleep because of low blood sugar levels," said Amit.

The device can be worn when the diabetic is sleeping. Diabetics sweat around their arms, when their sugar levels get very low. The moisture sets off an alarm that wakes up the person. The two worked several weekends on a basic electronics kit from Radio Shack. They combined parts of one experiment with parts from others and used a 9volt battery for power.

The bracelet is made from antenna wire, with some insulation removed to detect moisture. "There were a lot of problems, we put together the wrong things and ended up blowing up things. It was trial and error," said Anjali.

The Duracell/NSTA Inventions Challenge is the nation's oldest and largest middle-school and high-school competition for inventions. The competition challenges students to think creatively and expand their technological skills by completing a working device powered by Duracell batteries. The devices should entertain, educate and make life easier or perform a practical function. The inventions are judged on creativity, practicality, energy efficiency and clarity of written description.

The NSTA, founded in 1944, is the world's largest professional organisation, dedicated to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning.

The two could not have done it without the help of their mother. Satwant Kaur is a computer consultant who is also working on her PhD in computer science. She was kept busy picking up the components needed from Radio Shack and replacing the damaged parts with new ones! She also had to mediate when the two of them fought, which was almost all the time.

"They work well together when they are not fighting! I've to be the referee, since they fight a lot," laughs Kaur.

Kaur has an engineering and computer science background, so her kids have obviously inherited her love for technology. "They are bright kids by God's grace, and are technologically oriented. They feel the pain of people who are sick. Anjali has seen the difficulties faced by Amit because of his diabetes. They are oriented to applying technology to medicine," says the proud mom.

The kids have also submitted a project on gene therapy for cancer treatment to another contest, the Toshiba Explorer Vision. The results are not yet out. They created a Web site that presented a vision of the gene therapy that can be used for cancer treatment in the future. "It was very exciting working on this. We are hoping to help people with cancer through our project," said Anjali.

She is also working on an entry for the DuPage County Fair on the subject of electrophoresis, a technique for DNA identification.

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