Mum team’s solution for flat feet wins award

Shreya Bhandary TNN

Mumbai: Five city students have brought accolades to the country by winning the Open European Championship of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) Lego League held in The Netherlands earlier this week. These students came up with a simple solution for people suffering from flat feet.
Ansh Verma from Ecole Mondiale World School, Shikhar Bakhda, Anant Kandoi and Parth Mehta from Jamnabai Narsee School and Harshvardhan Raje from Singhania School in Thane got together for the first time at the children’s technology workshop in Juhu and the idea germinated in the minds of one of their parents. “Ash and Harshvardhan both suffer from the condition of flexible flat feet, whereby they are unable to walk properly, slap their feet, and due to the lack of arch, experience pain when participating in sports at school,” said Asha Sundararajan, director of the workshop. This is what encouraged them to work out a solution to this problem.

“The students came up with a simple solution of using touch to measure the foot pressure and motors to engage in the dynamic movement of the foot,” Sundararajan said.

It took the team six months to complete the project. “During school, we would rush to the workshop immediately after school and work on the solution. Once ready, the team set for The Netherlands on the first of this month.

Sixty-seven projects coming from various countries across the globe were being presented one after another at the FIRST Lego LeagueAdding a touch of Indian culture to their presentation, the entire team went on stage barefoot. The presentation was selected as the winning project on June 4.

FINDING THEIR FEET: The Mumbai team with their project for coping with flat feet at the competition held in The Netherlands