A grade 6 student of Post's Corners Public School won the first edition of Space Brain Hack challenge that invited solutions from young participants to maintain astronaut mental health and wellness.
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) organized this challenge for Grades 6-8 and 9-12 students to encourage them to shape the nation's space program.
Bhavishyaa Vignesh, the 12-year-old SpaceTech and AI enthusiast won the grand prize for her proposed solution and will enjoy a virtual visit from a CSA expert or astronaut.
The winner used a scratch program (a high-level block-based visual programming language) and built an app called PeaceMaker to build the prototype.
"This will eventually be replaced with a virtual reality (VR) headset in a real solution," said Vignesh.
The VR headset would also "use brain wave analysis to monitor the astronaut's emotions and automatically change the setting to relax their mind if required."
A panel of CSA judges reviewed the submissions from young Canadians based on four criteria: innovation, communication, critical thinking, and validity.
Vignesh started showing interest in coding at the age of 7 and has been learning HTML/CSS, JS and Python coding systems since then. A self-learner, she won several STEM challenges at the provincial level, such as Skills Ontario Competitions and participated in global hackathons and TechSpace events with her innovative solutions.
All through her journey, she got immense support from her mentors in the SpaceTech industry, including the experts at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) and Canadian Association for Girls In Science (CAGIS), Suchitra Srinivasan, her mom pointed out.
A data professional in the banking and finance industry, Srinivasan maintains her daughter's social media profile to showcase her accomplishments.
She also researches and finds out projects that her daughter could take up every month.
"I take that responsibility to identify where the competition has been hosted and what the challenges are. Once I register, then it's completely her work to build the solution," Srinivasan explained.
For the proud mom, bridging the gap is essential, wherein girls also showcase their skills in science and STEM.
Likewise, Vignesh hopes to bring more people into the fields of STEM and space. She created a space club with some girls in her class last year and runs coding and space camps for girls ages six to 13 during school breaks.
She draws much of her learning from her involvement with CAGIS and RASC.
Vignesh dreams of coding for Canadarm3, a smart robotic system Canada will build for the Lunar Gateway project, an international mission by NASA and the International Space Station partners.