Tamil inventor Vaanan Murugathas is a kid genius. At just 12-years-old, he has invented a do-it-yourself spectrometer which he’ll be taking to the Maker Festival in Toronto, to show how anyone can hack their phone to measure water quality. All you would need is construction paper, a CD, and his mobile app. His invention is motivated by a social purpose.
“Many [First Nations] reserves don’t have access to clean water and I feel like the government is not doing enough to actually stop this issue,” he tells the CBC.
Murugathas mentions that his invention was inspired by hearing Indigenous critic Jesse Wente discussing the frequent and sometimes constant boil water advisories among First Nations reserves on a radio show.
“When I make things, it gives me the satisfaction of knowing that I just created something that can help people.”
-Featured image sourced from the CBC.