Freshman, Meghna Behari, Wins National STEM Competition

The award includes a $10,000 check as well as national attention

Alyssa Bruce, Staff Writer|November 15, 2017

Meghna+displays+her+aqua-bot+creation+in+Washington.

Submitted photo - Trib Total Media

Meghna displays her aqua-bot creation in Washington.

On the exciting yet nerve-wracking day of November 13,2017, one of NAI’s own freshman received the Marconi/Saueli Award for Innovation, during a competition organized by The Society for Science and the Public.

Meghna Behari, freshman, created a surface water testing robot that can detect contamination in water and send various data on water quality parameters to a computer or phone app to enter in the competition.

When asked how she got the idea for her project, Behari reported that she had first gotten the idea when she started hearing about the contamination in lakes and creeks close to our hometown. “I realized that both citizens and scientists had no convenient and efficient way of detecting what was in their water”, elaborated Behari.

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“I wanted to create something that could simplify the water testing process which could be used by citizens, scientists, and even residents in third world countries.”

— Meghna Behari

 

It was Behari’s first time at the competition, which was held in Washington D.C. For winning the award, she received a $10,000 cash reward. “I plan to reinvest some of it into my project, but most of it will go into my college fund”, she explained.

Understandably, Behari was “really surprised and excited when my name was first announced, but after it sunk in I felt honored and super grateful that I got this opportunity in the first place.”

The NAI freshman hopes to go into engineering after high school, specifically robotics engineering. “I hope to see a big change in the small percentage of women in STEM related careers. I hope that by the time I am old enough to be in the STEM workforce, the men to women ratio is a lot more even. I don’t want to accept the small percentage, but rather hope to help work towards getting more women active in STEM” replied Behari when asked for her opinion on the small amount of women in that field. She looks up to Elon Musk, CEO of “SpaceX”, and all women with STEM related careers.

Congratulations, Meghna!