Sopore students develop school voting machine

Baramulla, June 20: The students at Government Boys Higher Secondary School (BHSS) Bomai Sopore in north Kashmir have developed a School Voting Machine (SVM) in their Atal Tinkering Laboratory (ATL).

This innovative project, developed jointly by Madiha Javaid, Suhail, and Suhaan, under the guidance of their mentor teacher and ATL in-charge, aims to revolutionise the process of holding school elections by ensuring error-free voting.

The students while briefing about the project emphasised that the SVM will not only facilitate the election of class representatives and school leaders but will also prepare them for democratic processes. Furthermore, the machine has potential applications in local elections, such as those held at the block, mohalla, or municipality levels.

"The idea for the SVM came to us after the recent Lok Sabha polls conducted using EVMs across India," said Madiha Javaid while briefing about the project."We designed the SVM to conduct school-level elections, like nominating class or school representatives, with the help of ATL," she said. Suhaan, who handled the coding for the project in C , showcased the machine's capability during a live demonstration, explaining its features and functioning of the machine.

The students of Government Boys HSS Bumai held a live demonstration of the SVM wherein they showed how votes are cast and how the results will be displayed in an error-free manner. "We are thankful to our mentor teacher, and the principal of the school who guided us and provided us the platform to give a practical shape to our project," Suhaan said. The students also extended gratitude to the principal of the school Altaf Hussain Tara, ATL in-charge Ishfaq Ahmad Mir and mentor student Ruhban Abdullah.

Notably, around 17 schools including four private schools in Baramulla district are equipped with ATL. The funding for the ATLs is done by Niti Aayog. As already reported, Atal Innovation Mission and NITI Aayog are establishing more than 500 Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) in J&K schools under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). The initiative has been taken to nurture the innovative mindset among high school students across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir. Sajad Akbar, the mentor teacher of the students posted at the Bumai Higher secondary extended gratitude to the Government of India and Niti Aayog for equipping the school with ATL which helped the students to design the innovative project in the laboratory.

"It is a portable machine and can be used to conduct elections at local level and in schools as well. I am thankful to the CEO Baramulla, DSEK and GoI for providing the ATL lab in the school. It is because of the ATL Laboratory that the idea conceived by the students got a practical shape," he said.

Vice Principal HSS Bumai Ayaz Ahmad Bhat congratulated the students for designing the innovative project with the help of ATL.

"It is because of the help of ATL, the students of the school were able to come up with an innovative project. The project works on the analogy of EVM," he said. He said before this project, the students of the institution earlier established a blind curve mechanism in the ATL of the school which got its recognition at national and international level. "The SVM will help to develop democratic spirit among the students. Students can hold elections to elect Class representative or School head boy or head girl," he said.

He said that they are ready to extend support to the students of other schools as well. "We are here to support their ideas," he said.