Sabuj Saikia is a prodigious young innovator from Guwahati whose innovations have gained him international recognition at a very young age.
Born in Golaghat, Assam, Sabuj started his preliminary education from Sacred Heart Montessori School, Tezpur after which he shifted to Guwahati for further education. He’s currently a Class XII student of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Silpukhuri where he’s pursuing Science stream.
Ever since childhood, Sabuj has had the urge to innovate but he got the push to pursue it as a career after he was awarded the first prize at a science exhibition conducted at school.
Sabuj Saikia, along with his friend Kaustav Moni Malakar, was recently bestowed with the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Ignite Award 2017 for developing a ‘Foot operated tea making machine for the specially-abled’ in a bid to make life of people with upper limb paralysis or injury easier.
Talking to G Plus about the ideation of the foot operated tea making machine, innovator Sabuj said, “We noticed that there are quite a few assistive aids to help the specially-abled to move around, but hardly anything to equip them financially. Since tea is widely consumed in Assam and generates income for many, we came up with a mechanical design of a tea making machine that can give full freedom to the specially-abled to control each and every step required to make tea starting from washing the utensil to cleaning the residual tea leaves left after making tea.”
He further informed that the current prototype has the facility to prepare two varieties of tea for the customer and they’re planning to disclose the final product by the end of 2018, when it shall be made commercially available. He’s hopeful that the government would extend support to enable people with disabilities to live with dignity.
Earlier, he invented an energy producing device which requires just 0.4 litres of water that was recognised by the research associate of IIT GHY fuel cell department and made him win many prestigious national level science exhibitions conducted by reputed institutes, including IDEATHLON 2017 that further led to his selection for Nobel Prize Series conducted by Ministry of Science & Technology in the same year.
Sabuj informed G Plus that there are a lot of projects in the pipeline. “Currently, I’m working along with a friend on the drainage system to find out a permanent solution to problems leading to flood in the State.”
Sabuj is also associated with robotics and has won laurels in the sector. The young robotics enthusiast won the national level of World Robotics Championship 2016 and represented India at the international level in Open Senior High category under the theme ‘Rap the Scrap’. He also won in 20kg Robowars conducted by SMIT recently.
He feels that he has found his career path since innovating is where his interest truly lies. He says, “Innovation doesn’t require educational qualification. Rather, it requires an understanding of the problems and keen interest in finding its solution.” He also wishes to do research works in the field of Physics and Energy and open a start up to showcase his innovations.
Talking about the difficulties and challenges along the way, Sabuj told G Plus, “The biggest challenge that people of my age face in the field of innovation is the harsh criticism from the society. Mental support is the most important thing needed to excel in fields that are different from the mainstream and people need to understand that.”
Sabuj considers ace innovator Uddhab Bharali and Elon Musk as his greatest inspirations. He wishes to achieve more success in the coming years by working towards the betterment of the society and the environment we live in at the same time.