Young inventor brings home top award

Nikhil and Liam with their trophies at the Taiwan International Science Fair on February 6, 2010

A teenager has just returned home from Taiwan, where he grabbed top honours for his innovation that helps parents monitor the Internet habits of their children virtually from anywhere in the world.

Seventeen-year-old Nikhil Mahashabde, a former Mount Roskill Grammar School was awarded the first prize for his SpyNik at the Taiwan International Science Fair 2010 held at Taipei on February 6.

Liam Ellis from Hutt Valley High School won the third place in the ‘Engineering Section,’ for his invention called, ‘Avert,’ an automatic posture sensing garment.  

They were among 250 contestants in representing 13 countries with entries in 11 categories. Nikhil had earlier won a Travel Award sponsored by Dairy NZ at the ‘Genesis Energy Realise the Dream’ event two months ago.

His entry won the third place in ‘Bright Sparks Competition,’ organised by ETITO, a multi-industry, industry training organisation.

Earlier, Nikhil was also a recipient of a National Certificate for Education Achievement (NCEA) scholarship for his invention.

True to the adage that ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention,’ SpyNik resulted from the concerns expressed by a woman over the internet usage by her children.

“I do not know how to monitor to stop them from visiting all sorts of websites. I wish there was a device which would help me track them down,” she said.

Nikhil’s creative brain worked extra hours to put together a brilliant product.

“This is a little box of electronic tricks,” he said.

Nikhil designed a dedicated website, with a log-in facility for clients to monitor what is going on in their computer from anywhere in the world.

“This unit controls the electronics and stores the history of the web pages that the user has visited. The device allows the client to disconnect or reconnect the internet at his or her will anytime,” he said.

Nikhil said the visit to Taiwan was short, busy and full of activity. It included trips to a number of science centres including the National Space Organisation (Taiwan) and the Hsinchu Science Park.

“Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-Jeou was the Chief Guest at the Awards Ceremony. I could not believe my ears when my name was announced as the winner,” he said.

There is one more Awards Night due on March 10 at Wellington’s Te Papa, at which Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand and Lady Satyanand will be Guests of Honour. Nikhil will be presented with a citation and a cash award.

Nikhil plans to pursue a conjoint graduate degree in Engineering and Commerce at the University Of New South Wales, Sydney.

“One of my goals is to get into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas. Astronomy has always been my passion,” Nikhil said.

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