The Create the Future Design Contest <http://contest.techbriefs.com/> was launched in 2002 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. The annual event has attracted more than 8,000 product design ideas from engineers, entrepreneurs, and students worldwide. I received from them a mail informing about this contest. May be you know some one who might be interested in participating. I sent a mail to Afreed Islam, the 16 years old class X student from Hatigaon who has hit the front page of many of our national dailies with the launch of his RevoBook microchip based computer <http://www.revobook.tk/> . I have requested him to participate in this contest. Those of you who have missed the news item about his invention here are two of the links:
Schoolboy invents computer system <http://tinyurl.com/n4y9kro> Assam teen gets tech patent - Class X student creates operating system <http://tinyurl.com/kz4yhbl> I congratulated my fellow compatriot with this achievement at a very young age. It makes us all proud. Atleast we have some good news from that part of the world. I started my IT career many decades back in 1965 when computer was not a household name. Till my retirement I was involved with IT and was a part of the history that saw the transition from Hollerith machines to today's microchip based wonder gadgets. Based on my personal experience of more than 35 years in IT; - on one hand I am very proud to say that a fellow Assamese has invented the ReVobook. But on the other hand it also raises many questions which was not mentioned in the press release. Questions like: if it is an original invention or a superb original production of a PC which is based on known hardware and software. The design and testing of a new operating system is a very time consuming job and has to address different issues relating to the operation of a computer however small it might be. This and other questions are already being raised in technical publications. Two of such articles I have mentioned below. I have requested Afreed to refute their claims published in the article after his school examination. http://wowmoron.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/truth-behind-magic-operating-system -developed-by-std-x-student/ http://technofaq.org/posts/2014/02/unmasked-afreed-islam-revobook-revoixos/ His invention was patented at the Calcutta-based Intellectual Property Office and was subsequently published in the Official Patent Journal on December 13 2013. Afreed demonastred this operating system before Amtron, Assam Science Technology and Environment Council and a few educational institutions. With this type of backing I am sure he will be able to face the critical technical press. Wahid Saleh _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
