By Ramith Dheerasekara   Yasawardhana Samankumara is a teacher currently working for Hanwella Rajasinghe Vidyalaya. He is in charge of the school’s “New Inventions Club”, which was placed first in the country at a number of all-island competitions. Samankumara won the “Most Innovative Teacher of the Year” award in 2018, and one of his students became the best young inventor across the globe at an awards ceremony held in Pennsylvania in the same year. The following is an interview of his students who have taken on new inventions, by my students and I from the Royal Institute, Gampaha. This was indeed a long-awaited meeting. I had heard a lot about Samankumara during the year he won the aforementioned award, and his name resurfaced again once I met Nuwan Dissanayake (initiator of the awards ceremony) and Gihan D. Pathirana (the music teacher from Sri Palabaddala College whose life story is pretty similar to that of Hemal Ranasinghe’s character in “Thaala”). In this article, I will not cover Samankumara’s life story – which I would indeed have loved to pen. Instead, I will use this space to motivate and tell all our beloved readers of Little Stars about the unbelievable achievements of these extremely humble, down-to-earth, and, of course, extremely creative students.     Nishara on her new invention: Greens cutting machine   Usually, when we cut greens, our hands can get cut; another problem is the fact that if we need to go out for something urgent, the bundle of greens will turn out distorted – which can be very irritating sometimes. This invention of mine can be used as a solution to both these problems.     Asani Uthkarsha Bopegamage, grade 7, on her new inventions: Double protective layer mosquito net and innovative soap holder    Awards won

•         Certificate of Merit at Aurora conducted by Ananda College 2019
•         Certificate of participation at Fusion conducted by the Young Inventors Club of Royal College
•         National Institute of Education – Certificate of Merit

  Usually, with mosquito nets, there is a high tendency for the mosquitoes to bite us if our body is against the net. With my invention, this tendency has been mitigated, because there is a distance between the mosquito net that is much longer than the tip (nose) of the mosquito, thereby making it impossible for the mosquitoes to bite anybody inside the net. You can understand this better, I think, when you look at it. The cost for this is also very low because it has been made from things that we usually throw away.   Yasawardhana Samankumara: With the usual soap holders we have at home, what happens is, when there is water in the holder, it wastes the soap. Here, she has found a solution for that problem with this new invention of hers.     E.D. Neranjana Nilnuwan, grade 9, on his new invention: Easy bottle cleaner   Awards won

•         Merit award from the University of Colombo                        
•         Merit award from Future 19 conducted Royal College Colombo
•         Certificate of participation at Aurora conducted by Ananda College Colombo

  I have taken two separate magnet parts, and around it, I’ve wrapped a sponge. So I’ve soaked the magnet part with dishwashing liquid, and I move the other magnet from the outside of the bottle. That way, we can clean the inside of any bottle very easily. His next new invention is a smart waiter (robot).     Lahiru, grade 9, on his new invention: Greens cutting machine for a person with special needs   Samankumara: Lahiru has invented this for people with special needs. Lahiru is also somebody like that, and he has come up with many inventions for the special needs community. He is also currently researching and working on some new inventions for the special needs community. His next invention is a machine to cut bread for people with special needs.     T.D. Sasindu Udana, grade 10, on his new inventions: Hygienic spoon, coconut husk-interior helmet, eco-friendly yoghurt cup, and branch sawing chain   Awards won

•         Kelaniya Campus first place for the eco-friendly yoghurt cup
•         Intel Third Place again for the eco-friendly yoghurt cup
•         Junior Inventor of the Year
•         Placed third by the Sri Lanka Engineers Association

  I did a lot of research about the hygienic spoon. I discovered that so many Sri Lankans suffer from stomach aches and diseases because they keep the spoons on the pots, etc., and that is why I decided to invent the hygienic spoon. Usually, when we take a helmet, as a safety measure, there is a piece of rigifoam inside. I wanted to use a coconut husk instead of the rigifoam, because when a coconut falls from a tree, there is no damage done to the coconut. This is extremely eco-friendly as well. In 2018, there was a huge increase in dengue fever, and one of the main reasons was the fact that water would gather in things like ice cream tubs, yoghurt cups, etc. To address this, I removed the bottom of the yoghurt cups and placed a lid, just like on the top, so that water would not gather. Usually, it’s difficult and expensive to cut the branches in trees, especially if they are high. So, this is a simple and very effective machine that I’ve built as a solution for that problem.   Dasith Tharusha, grade 10, on his new invention: Visor helmet   Usually, when somebody rides a bike in the rain, it’s very difficult to see ahead. This is an invention to address that problem. The visor works automatically, as it senses the drops of rain. The speed of the viper would change as well depending on how heavy the rainfall is.   Sanira Hansara, grade 10, on his new invention: Remote to open/close windows   We can use this remote to open and close windows, and we don’t need to get close to the window at all. It is possible to open/close windows in the fourth floor while being in the ground floor. His next new invention is a hand sanitising robot.   Vageesha Bhanuka, grade 10, on her new invention: Protecting fruits from pests and a safety ring to climb coconut trees   Awards won

•         All-island first place

  Protecting fruits can sometimes be very difficult. Sometimes, the animals come and eat the fruits, sometimes fruits can get discoloured because of heat, etc., and it can also be very difficult to even wrap something around the fruits because you need to climb the trees. So, this invention is an expert solution to that problem. The other invention is of course to make the process of climbing trees easier and safer for all those who climb trees as a profession.