கனடா பதினைந்து மாணவன் - டீவேஸ் அருள்மணி

கனடா பதினைந்து மாணவன் - டீவேஸ் அருள்மணி

Teen powers up for showdown

There are eight syllables in the first word of the title of Dheevesh Arulmani's science project. The word is "photoelectrochemical."

It doesn't get any easier from there. But the 15-year-old Mississauga student patiently explains what his year's worth of research is all about:

"Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, known as hydrogen fuel cells, offer commercial and economic feasibility as well as environmental sustainability for electricity production . . . "

Say what?

Arulmani, who's about to compete against the world's smartest teens in the biggest science fair of its kind on the planet, laughs. Realizing long ago that "people weren't understanding what I was saying, " the young genius is used to "dumbing it down."

He thoughtfully offers a one-page summary of his work for the benefit of the unscientific mind.

The Grade 10 student from Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School will be in his element next week when he joins 19 other young Canadians at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles. With $4 million in awards up for grabs, the team from Youth Science Canada will pit their mental might against 1,600 students from more than 60 countries.

Last year, Arulmani came home with a $10,000 prize for his project on the future of energy. Not bad for a kid who started taking his toys apart as a toddler to see how they worked.

This year he cranked up the heat with a solution to the high cost, rapid degradation and slow reaction kinetics of fuel cells. Translation: He can produce up to 90 per cent more electricity for much less money, to power everything from cellphones to office buildings.

He's grateful for his parents' help driving him to the state-of-the-art lab he uses at Oshawa's University of Ontario Institute of Technology. But efforts to involve them in his research fall a little short.

"I've tried and they've tried but nothing worked very well because my parents aren't too knowledgeable about electrochemistry, " he says.

His mother Vanitha Arulmani, who works in finance, admits she got left behind long ago. But his engineer father, Arul Kandasamy, can hold his own at the dinner table. Arulmani, who scores high 90s in school and plans to pursue a career in science, says he's always been curious about "the logic of how separate mechanisms work."

Arulmani is eager to share ideas and concepts with colleagues at the science fair. When chit-chat turns to the integration of light-absorbing photosensitizers in PEM fuel cells using hydrodynamics to enhance electricity production, they'll understand exactly what he's talking about.

http://www.mississauga.com/localprofile/article/1004749--teen-powers-up-for-showdown

Edited May 7, 201114 yr by akootha