Via The Hindu.

Not so long ago, 14-year-old Manas Manohar visited a BSNL office in his home district of Kannur to get his modem repaired.

He was asked to return in the evening to meet the officer concerned, which he did only to be told that the officer had not turned for the day.

So, when he was among the selected few to be given a Raspberry Pi under the State government’s “Learn to Code’ project, Manas did not have to think twice. He created Pi Attendance, an electronic punching machine, which he dedicated to all those who made umpteen futile visits to various offices after officers concerned were found absent.

The innovative project was adjudged the best in the State-level coding contest held in connection with the Learn to Code programme and he walked away with a cash prize of Rs.2 lakh. “When hosted on a web portal, Pi Attendance will help people anywhere in the world from knowing whether the officers they want to meet in a particular office are present before paying a visit,” said Manas.

The ninth standard student from the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Higher Secondary School in Kannur assembled the main unit using a RFID card and a card reader, a 16×2 LCD display, jumper wire, edimax, wireless networking equipment and, of course, a Raspberry Pi at a cost of Rs.3,500. When the RFID card is swiped against the device, the unique number is read by the RFID reader and is written to the database, which then becomes accessible to end users.

Apart from the training by teachers, Manas also practiced coding using SQL, Python, and PHP programming languages and database management system referring the Internet.

Manas Manohar developed an innovative project which was adjudged the best in the State-level coding contest held in connection with the Learn to Code programme and won a cash prize of Rs.2 lakh.

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