Indian boy wins top intel award for environmental engineering in US

"My project will actually help farmers in biodegrading the pesticide which is plaguing the country," Prashant told PTI after he was declared winner in the environmental engineering category at this years' competition. Four Indian-Americans received top awards in various categories. In all, more than 1,700 students from across the world participated in the week-long event which concluded here on Friday. 

A student of Carmel Junior College in Jamshedpur, Prashant's project 'Biodegradation of Chlorpyrifos using native bacteria' said that farmers should not use pesticides. Prashant bagged the coveted award for his innovation for fighting against. 

"In almost all the states, like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Haryana and Bihar and Jharkhand, there's extensive farming. Using excessive amounts of pesticides, is affecting the health of people and the environment around them," he said.

While the topmost Gordon E Moore Award of $75,000 went to Ivo Zell, 18, of Germany for designing and constructing a remote-control prototype of a new ‘flying wing’, almost All the participants from the Indian delegation returned from the annual competition with one award or the other. In fact, every section of the award ceremony had budding Indian scientists on stage. 

So were the Indian American high schoolers, promoting one of the Intel official to say, "Indians and Indian Americans rock today," as the awards ceremony concluded at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles.