12-year-old Thiiran Murugan decided to do something to keep his schoolmates and teachers safe

Source: TheSunDaily

School is now fraught with danger. Close contact among students and with teachers could lead to an infection and possibly a long stay at the hospital. 

But rather than stay away, 12-year-old Thiiran Murugan decided to do something to keep his schoolmates and teachers safe. 

He introduced a new system to enable teachers to take the temperatures of students without having to come into close contact with each other. 

The method, that he has named the Smart Student System (SSS), can also be used to monitor temperature irregularities and student attendance patterns. 

Thiiran, who studies at Sekolah Kebangsaan St Paul in Seremban, said when the standard operating procedures (SOP) were introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19, he hit upon the idea of enabling teachers to monitor students’ temperatures from a safe distance. 

“I was worried about the teachers and staff at my school who were enforcing the SOP. That triggered an idea for an innovation that could enable teachers to keep tabs on the students’ temperatures without close contact.” 

He based his idea on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, where each student would be equipped with a tag. 

“When a student enters the school compound, the RFID reader will scan the tag to record the time of arrival. The student is then required to walk past a scanner to have his temperature taken and recorded by the tag.” 

The information is then transferred electronically to a server and can be made available to the teacher, via an app, 15 minutes before classes start. 

Thiiran said the system, which is still in preliminary development, will also be equipped to compile a log that will highlight absenteeism and later comers. 

“The data can be retrieved anywhere at any time,” he added. 

Thiiran said his school has already adopted the system and he hopes more schools would follow suit. 

“This will help to lighten the burden on teachers,” he said. 

The young inventor already has plans to upgrade the system by adding more features. 

“Soon, I hope to incorporate merit points on discipline, which will be reflected in the each student’s report card.” 

SSS will also have a GPS to track students’ movements to prevent them from loitering. 

“Finally, one option that I like is the ‘cashless canteen’ feature which will work as a prepaid RFID tag. With this, all the student has to do is wave his tag at the canteen counter and the cost of his meal will be debited from his account.” 

He said that being paperless, the system is also good for the environment. 

“We’ll be saving millions of trees. A small step goes a long way,” he added. 

Like all innovations, it began with more questions than answers. 

“The idea proved challenging. How do I get a working prototype? Will it be costly? What kind of materials should I use?” Thankfully, I had help from my parents and teachers. We worked closely together on the design and they taught me about the electronic system,” he said. 

Dr Bavani Nageswana Row, the team lead of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) unit at the school, said there are plans to use SSS in schools in future. 

“I believe this system can be used post Covid-19 to safeguard our children from any future pandemics such as the current one. We are aware that most schools have installed some kind of safety measures as part of their SOP. Since this is a new experience for all, we are still working on fine tuning it,” she said. 

Source: TheSunDaily