In what can be described as a consistent display of excellence and innovation that keeps improving each year, ten teams from our school have made it to the Conrad 2024 finals. This achievement is coming just a year after Team S.A.D from our school emerged as the overall best in the 2023 Conrad Challenge for creating a smartphone application that connects craftsmen with people who need their services.
Over the past consecutive years, our students have always made it to the final for their exceptional innovations and received mouth-watering rewards. This year is no exception as the finalists have won $60,000 worth of undergraduate degree scholarships to study at Clarkson University, New York, United States.
In addition to the Clarkson University scholarships, each of the student finalists has also won prestigious awards from Menlo College USA and Lewis & Clark College USA, receiving up to $188,000 worth of scholarships per student.
Some of the innovative projects that have earned our 2024 finalists a spot at the Conrad Challenge finals include the development of an anti-diabetic capsule called Sempill, with Sesame indicum as its active constituent. The capsule was created by Team Ethereal, one of the qualifying teams. The formulation has been tested on albino rats induced with diabetes and it has been confirmed to lead to a notable reduction in both fasting blood sugar and random blood sugar levels. Thus, the team is optimistic that these capsules will exhibit a notable reduction in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in human subjects.
Another team, Team Mono, successfully engineered a Direct Air Capture (DAC) device to substantially decrease the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The device has been designed to run on sustainable energy and will emit zero waste as gas. Their targeted approach aims to contribute significantly to addressing the global challenge of climate change and mitigating the impacts of global warming.
Other impressive innovations by our forward-thinking students involve the use of information technology and artificial intelligence to help sectors like aviation, agriculture, nutrition and health, technology, finance and NGOs.
The Conrad Challenge is a yearly competition that brings together a dynamic community of innovators and entrepreneurs who work together to develop extraordinary and viable solutions that benefit our world. 30 teams will be competing for the top spot at the 2024 finals. The finals will take place next month, February 2024.