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| Ashraf, Chemmappilly, Thrissur |
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A 5th standard drop out from a poor family, who speaks only Malayalam, Asharaf of Chemmappilly, Thrissur, was invited last year to IIT, Chennai to explain his innovative design of wind energy generating unit. A creative person by birth with a scientific and technical bend of mind, he had observed that the standard design of windmills is highly inefficient as it lets most of the air to escape between the blades of the device. His innovation, which can be compared to a jet engine type wind turbine, helps to tap the full area of the blowing wind using aerodynamic principle.
This exposure at IIT certainly helped him to boost his self confidence but did nothing to improve the financial condition of the part time researcher who is otherwise a painter working on daily wages.
Asharaf had an inquisitive mind even as a young boy. It was this temperament that saw him learn the fundamental principles of science from his observations of Nature. But loss of wages due to his long periods of absence from work due to preoccupation with intense mental research has had negative impact on his domestic front and social relations. Nor has he been able to gather resources for the prototypes that he must build to test his hypotheses. In order to blunt the criticism at home and the snigger of the people in the neighbourhood, he has ventured to design certain very mundane, yet useful devices.
One such device is a mechanical lift for taking copra to a higher floor, designed for a copra merchant in his neighbourhood. This device is operational even now. He has used the same principle to design a mechanical lift for construction sites, that does not need electricity.
In the meanwhile, he has made another innovation of using rain water harvesting structure to air-condition a building. By using cold air above water in the tank to enter all the rooms, and replace the hot air in the room that is to be expelled by the device, Asharaf hopes to make the rain water harvesting structure to act as an air cooler. His idea, expressed in 35 sketches and a detailed project report, has been submitted for the consideration of India Innovation Foundation award.
Courtesy: V.H.Dirar, Mathrubhumi, February 20, 2005
Contributed by: Administrator
