Saturday, November 21, 2009, 09.13 AM
2009/11/07
KOH SOO LING
KOH SOO LING writes about a gifted boy’s ’journey of learning’
AS Balakrishna Pillai holds a broken egg shell in his hand, trying to peel off the membrane, he comes across as either a bored person trying to make sense of a discussion or a genius trying to create something out of the ordinary.
Looking at the young looking boy I would never have guessed that he is 14 and has not formally attended school. Until recently, he has been doing a correspondence course with a New Zealand school.
Balakrishna is no ordinary boy. Born to lawyer parents, Murali B. Pillai and Juliana, he had just won first place in the Best Global Business Plan in a Global Challenge for Exemplary Demonstration of the Tools and Confidence to solve worldwide problems.
Organised by the University of Vermont in the United States, this competition attracted 4,000 high school students from all over the world. Non-US students had to collaborate with American peers to form teams and come up with a feasible invention that can help reduce the impact of global warming and formulate a business plan for the product.
Balakrishna's team S.O.S. had initially comprised three members. It finally dwindled to two. Balakrishna's US partner was Ivan Duschatzky of Miami Coral Park Senior High School.
| Kendra Showers (left) of University of Vermont presenting the award to Balakrishna Pillai. |
The team invented the Multi-purpose Electric Generator (MEG). It captures energy that would otherwise be wasted and transforms it into electrical power, which can be stored and used to fuel other applications.
Balakrishna says: "On an average day, a human expends an enormous amount of energy going about his daily life. Consider our everyday activities such as walking, sitting, opening and closing doors, and the like.
"Most of the energy expended on these tasks is wasted. What if we could capture this energy and put it to good use?
"The marvellous thing is you don't have to change your lifestyle or do anything other than continue to do what you have always been doing."
With this in mind the MEG was conceived. It is a device in the form of a tile which consists of a flat plastic plate with five magnets attached to its underside.
A coil of wire is positioned under each magnet. When pressure is exerted on the plate, the magnets are thrust into the coils. This creates an electrical current in the coils through electromagnetic induction. This electricity is captured and stored, ready to be used in any application.
"It cannot be denied that the energy generated by the MEG is small. However, tiny amounts add up -- just like drops make a mighty ocean," says Balakrishna.
The versatile MEG can be placed in any location where pressure is frequently applied by people. It can be positioned on floors of homes in areas where there is the greatest activity or frequency of use, for example, near toilets and staircases.
It can also be placed in strategic locations at public places with high human traffic such as airports, subway stations, bus stations and malls.
As a reward for his outstanding work in the Global Challenge, Balakrishna was invited to the Governor's Institute of Engineering at the University of Vermont in June for a one-week summer programme at the tertiary institution.
| Balakrishna with his mother Juliana. |
All tuition fees and travel costs were covered by the university. Balakrishna had the chance to work and exchange ideas with students from other parts of the world.
Balakrishna also went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to attend another summer camp and found to his delight that "everyone in MIT speaks in equations". "For once I felt totally at home," says Balakrishna.
Being a gifted child has its challenges which society sometimes fails to see and fathom. In the early years, Balakrishna went to four different kindergartens. The time spent at each kindergarten ranged from a month to a year.
"I was always unhappy. I recall one kindergarten teacher asking us to add the numbers from one to 20. When I came up with the exact answer within two minutes, she called me a show-off.
"This and a host of other things made me realise school will not work for me. I love learning. But some teachers are just keen to merely educate you and rob you of the process of learning."
The conventional education system makes no exception for a curious child who thinks out of the box and indeed learns differently.
Opportunities for individuals in Malaysia, who do not fall within the norm, are scarce.
Juliana says: "When my son was nine, he was offered a place at the School of Mathematics and Science, run by Flinders University, Adelaide, to pursue a programme for high school students.
"My husband and I decided against it and allowed him to continue with his correspondence programme while remaining in Malaysia so as to allow him time to grow emotionally in a safe environment with both parents.
"It is not unusual for children such as Balakrishna to develop asynchronously. It is important that parents support such kids emotionally and do not focus exclusively on intellectual development.
"Balakrishna could have finished his secondary education via the correspondence course by 10 years old. As parents we encouraged him to explore other interests such as art, photography, scuba diving, astronomy, writing and travelling."
Balakrishna's parents encouraged him to get involved in community service.
He helped set up a soup kitchen in Desa Mentari, Kuala Lumpur. He was keen to start a community project for poor urban children, teaching them skills to improve their self-worth and make them self-sufficient by setting up a co-operative.
"Children need to have a goal. One way is to enter into a business venture, such as growing and selling bean sprouts.
"I did a PowerPoint presentation but unfortunately it was difficult getting the support of the adults who only saw it as overly idealistic, unfeasible and too difficult to implement," laments Balakrishna.
He is presently working on another community service project that involves the collection of medicines and health supplements for use in a free clinic in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.
The medication is administered by registered doctors who volunteer their services at the clinic. A volunteer pharmacist checks the expiry date of the medicines and supplements before they are prescribed.
"At home, we tend to keep medicines for a long time and end up throwing them away.
"This is a waste when medicines can be recycled, provided they are not past their expiry dates."
Balakrishna's efforts bore fruit. Single-handedly, given his limited contacts, he managed to collect sufficient supplements for use in the clinic.
Balakrishna says he owes his unusual but interesting journey of learning to his parents.
"My mother supported me in all my projects and did not give up on me. My father instilled a lifelong love for Science in me."
Juliana, who is a committee member of the National Association for Gifted Children, Malaysia, says: "Balakrishna is gifted. He always did and saw things differently.
"He started reading independently at a young age and is an avid reader. Children need to be given the right care, attention and opportunities to explore their potential, and find their niche and purpose in life. For Balakrishna, his ultimate goal is to go to MIT."
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