International Youth Conference on Commerce & Economics

And what part would I have in anything of even remotely related to commerce and economics? More than I expected! It wasn’t until I attended this event (as a member of the Sharada Mandir School delegation) that I realised what an integral component economics plays in our lives. The  “Economics=Money” prejudice which I had for quite a few years, went out of the window here!

The IYCCE (International Youth Conference on Commerce & Economics) is a feather in the hat of City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). This year, was the 4th edition, hosted by CMS, Station Road Campus, from 28th to 31st of October. There was a wide spectrum of competitions, complemented by a series of lectures from various experts in the field.

https://youtu.be/TtfSOC6lNng

Our school team (Team No. N009 led by Ms. Kripa Narayan) participated in all ten competitions, as follows:

Senior Category (Std. 11 & 12)

• BUIZ- QUIZ (Business quiz) – Julian Fernandes & Esha Volvoikar
• BULL Vs BEAR (Debate) – Esha Volvoikar
• B-PLAN (Create an innovative business plan) – Alok Cordeiro & Aveera Juss
• FINTOONS (Financial cartoons) – Rishika Khemka
• COM.NET (Subject Knowledge Tests) – Maithili Arlekar & Alok Cordeiro
• E-MANAGE (Eco friendly industry presentation) – Aveera Juss & Rishika Khemka

Junior Category (Std. 10)

• SCI-TOOLS (Making a fully functional scientific project prototype) – Raunak Hede & Siddhant Govekar
• ENTREPRENEUR EXPRESSION (Inspirational & Motivational Corporate speech) – Deepali Desai
• SOUND OF SILENCE (Mime) – Siddhant Govekar, Sahil Betigeri, Deepali Desai & Raunak Hede

Combined team from both categories:

• AD-VENTURE (Performing an advertisement) – Alok Cordeiro, Sahil Betigeri, Aveera Juss, Rishika Khemka, Deepali Desai

In addition to the plethora of competitions, there were also seminars and interactive sessions by various eminent personalities including the likes of:

• Professor Santosh Mehrotra, JNU & Chairperson Centre for Informal sector & Labour studies, Delhi
• Mr. Anuj Kumar Jha, Directore, Information, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh
• Dr. Himanshu Rai, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML), Former Dean at MISB Bocconi, Milan (Italy), Ex-faculty XLRI Jamshedpur, alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
• Dr. M. Ashraf Rizvi, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, alumnus of Harvard Business School, Harvard University
• Professor Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, Chair of Education Economics and International Development, University of London
• Ms. Madhvi Kukreja, Social Acitivist and Social Entrepreneur, Sanatkada, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Vanangana, Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, Founder-Member, Treasurer

As well as a number of informative talks by the Founder-Manager of CMS, Dr. Jagdish Gandhi, on his vision of world peace.

SCI-TOOLS:

My classmate (Siddhant Govekar) and I, participated in Sci-Tools, which involved making a fully functional scientific prototype. Our project was an Automated Highway Lighting System powered by a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.

Click here to view our presentation, and this was our chart (displayed on the table).

As you may have noticed from the photographs, not all components which we made were used in the final prototype. The bearing assemblies, for instance, were excluded at the last minute due to weight issues. Another major change we made barely four days before leaving for the competition, was to replace the high-gauge PVC fins with cut-outs from a cheap plastic bucket. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience on real-life simplification. As a not-so-very-famous person once said, “Eschew obfuscation espouse elucidation.” So in a word: PVC and bearings didn’t work, but a plastic bucket and a top-hanging motor mount, did.

All in all, it turned out quite well despite the initial hiccups.

The 4th IYCCE was a truly enriching experience, which I will never forget.

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In the spirit of free distribution of information and the pursuit of knowledge, here’s a little present for all you geeks out there who bothered to scroll all the way down till the end of this post…

Technical specifications of the AHLS-VAWT:

Going with the spirit of open-source, although this project was done for a competition, given below are all the plans, schematics and list of major components used in all phases of the project. Go ahead, improve it and leave me a note in the comments section below!

DISCLAIMER: Due to several revisions, certain designs may or may not use certain parts. Anyone considering replicating this prototype is advised to use their discretion when matching schematics with the correct version of the 3D model. And remember, when in doubt, Google it. If you still need assistance, feel free to ask in the comments section below or drop me an email with your exact query.

Download the repository of tech-specs from here: (It’s barely 2MB!)Autonomous Highway Lighting System powered by Vertical Axis Wind Turbine_TECH-SPECSDownload

The files in the ZIP archive contain the following essentials:

Costing analysis – List of major components as well as important discrete components of the lighting and battery-charging circuitry.

Bearing fixture – 3D Google Sketchup model (only a small cross section) of the internal and external shaft spacing required.

VT-Charging_circuit – Circuit required to initially harness the electrical energy before entering the charging circuit.

VT-Lighting_system – Circuit required to regulate the output energy from the battery.

The original presentation from early phases of our research is also included (courtesy of Siddhant), containing all the technical data regarding which parts were used for what and the challenges overcome during the course of the prototype’s development.

Circuitry advice: The charging circuit used was a Li-Ion 11.1v 3S 10A cell Charge/Discharge Protection Circuit from robots.co.in. However, in retrospect, since this model was purely for demonstration purposes, we could have used the Li-Ion / Li-Po Intelligent Balance Charger for 2-3 Cell Battery which would have worked just as well, if not better, being a fully integrated no-nonsense device with built-in reverse polarity protection. Personally, I feel that any attempts to improve upon this design should be done bearing in mind the above-mentioned modification to the circuitry.

Power storage advice: It would be prudent to observe the highest degree of caution when using Li-ion batteries. They’re not as ill-tempered as their lithium-polymer counterparts, but if you mess up the charging cycles, things can get pretty bad. In case of leaks, follow your local laws for disposal of toxic and hazardous material and get rid of it in the right manner.

Bottom-line up front: Handle Li-ion batteries with care, and they’ll work beautifully. Charge them erratically, and they’ll turn your circuit on its head!