Youngistan zindabad

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 02 Maret 2013 | 21.16

Chidanand Rajghatta
02 March 2013, 09:40 AM IST

This year's TED conference was bright and shiny. It was a beacon of a youth that sees problems, and solutions, in a new light.

Around this time every year, I manage to slip away from wintry Washington DC and its glut of politics, and wing it to Long Beach, California, where I marinade my weary, thirsty mind in the outpouring of sunny optimism at the annualTED conference. TED (TED = Technology, Entertainment, and Design) has been sometimes described as a brain spa, at which attendees get mind massages, or more colorfully, indulge in "unending mental orgasms". Over a  period  of  four days, some of the best minds in the world — scientists, musicians, artists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists — unveil their latest works and thoughts in an 18-minute or less "talk  of  their  life".  The  attendees  are bubbly, the mood buoyant and messages upbeat. You come away hopeful. 

Attendance is by invitation only, usually after forking out US$ 7500 a head, although most talks are eventually posted online so you can watch it for  free. This year's conference theme was "The Young, the Wise, and the Undiscovered", which suited me fine, because aside from escaping the cold, my TED yatra is also aimed at getting away from the OLD. At TED, I get to connect  with  my  inner geek and outer body; and I hang out with the young and smart, a world away from insufferable 20th century political windbags of Washington DC (and New Delhi). It is invigorating and uplifting. 

Among the speakers was Taylor  Wilson, an 18-year-old nuclear scientist who electrified the world some years back by building a fusion reactor in his parents' garage at age 14. He has now invented small modular fission reactors which will run on waste from  old  nuclear weapons. He said he's rolling out a company later this year, backed by venture capitalists and the US government, to commercialise his product and stay ahead of China, which he thinks is sneaking up on the US. He is  more  sanguine about New Delhi as a US ally. 

Then there was Jack Andraka, 15, who has built a pancreatic cancer detector using inexpensive strips of filter paper, carbon nanotubes, and antibodies sensitive to mesothelin, a protein found  in  high levels in people with such cancer. The cancer test idea came to Jack in a school biology class on antibodies, and he was soon building on it reading up on Google. He wrote to some 200  professors  in  the  Washington  DC  area  and received one positive reply — from Dr Anirban Maitra, a Professor of Pathology and Oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Winning the Intel Science Fair grand prize of US$ 75,000 along the way ("It was pretty  cool  to  beat all the Indian kids to the prize," he said in an interview referring to the dominance of Indian-Americans in the contest), Andraka is talking to Quest Diagnostics to commercialise the product. 

It's not just rich, white kids who are on stage at TED. Richard Turere is a young Masai who lives in the Kenyan savannah. He invented "lion lights", an electrified fence that scared away big cats attacking his family cattle. India is full of such jugaadus, a  term  that readers are doubtless familiar with. In fact, Indian youth have now scaled up the ladder, and year after year, I see them make a splash at TED that leaves investors gasping and itching to throw  money  after  them.  Small  problem: India's regulatory environment.

One of the most striking presentations at TED came from Mumbai nerd Myshkin Ingawale, who followed up his last year's TouchHB, a portable non-invasive device to test anaemia with uCheck, a smartphone application that can analyse your urine at home, and keep track of 10 parameters — glucose, bilirubin, proteins, spec gravity, ketones, leukocytes, nitrites, urobilinogen, haematuria. This is helpful to  people  with  diabetes  and kidney, bladder, liver problems, UTI or just for primary detection and periodic wellness tracking. 
It is easy to be skeptical, even cynical, at this parade of young talent. Much of their work has not been peer reviewed,  and  there are hard yards between discovery/invention and the market. How do you think Westinghouse and General Electric will allow you to eat their lunch, I asked Taylor Wilson. "Wait and see," he grinned,  and  I'm  not  sure  he  knew the answer. 

But the thrilling part is the young see problems and solutions in a different light — with fresh minds and an idealism that has usually departed from the old. Turere's Lion Lights is not exactly rocket science,  but  it  is more affordable than radio collars, flares etc. Myshkin's designs are aimed not at doctors and big hospitals, but at ASHA health care workers, who are the backbone of the healthcare system. Andraka's simple newtechnique replaces a 60-year old test ("older than my dad," he said) that was 26,000 times more expensive. It costs pennies to the dollar now and takes less than five minutes. 

As I spoke to these young men, I heard a common refrain — a disdain for the formal system and establishment. Myshkin's work had not attracted the slightest interest from the government; Andraka is going to college reluctantly (only because his US$ 75,000 Intel Prize can only be used for college education), and Taylor Wilson isn't even going to bother with it — he is so far ahead of the pack. 

It all segued well with the keynote by this year's US$ 1 million TED Prize winner Dr  Sugata  Mitra.  It  is  not  that  the establishment does not have a role or formal education can be junked. But they need not be so central to the lives of the young in the 21st century. Mitra's hole-in-the-wall experiments, where he lets kids tool  around  a  computer unsupervised, shows the best results come when children work in groups, with minimal adult oversight. In fact, at the TED bash, it turned out that Andraka, Myshkin,  and  Turere  had  all  exchanged  notes  without  being  formally introduced. They drew ideas from each other, swapped coordinates, and went away richer. 

"Hey teacher! Leave those kids alone!" exhorted Pink Floyd. This applies to the establishment too. If you can't solve problems then get out  of the way. Mitra made a piercing observation  when  he  questioned  why  schools  took  away  smartphones  and  netbooks  from  kids  in  classrooms.  "Would  you  take  away  guns  from  soldiers  before sending  them  to  battle?".


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