The Generation-Next will probably hate Sriram Jayaraman and Srividya Swaminathan for creating another substitute for the teacher’s cane.The two 15-year-old students of Modern English School, Chembur, have devised a method to derive a wood-like substance from paper. And their experiment — called Paperood — is taking them to the ‘‘Intel International Science Engineering Fair’’ at Portland, United States, in May.‘‘When we were conceptualising our project, we knew we wanted to do something with waste paper,’’ Sriram says. ‘‘Our research revealed that too much paper lands up in the bin. We wanted to look for a way to put this waste to use.’’Brainstorming led to their big idea — so many trees are cut down to make paper, how about reversing the process?The duo trawled books and the Internet. ‘‘We had to find out what ingredient is lost during conversion of wood to paper and replace that to work the process backwards,’’ Sriram explains. After several trials and errors, they went to IIT, Powai, and the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for reference work, says Sitalaxmi Parmeshawaran, their guide. Soon, the team had its samples ready — blocks and cubes of wood-like material, made from all kinds of paper.Their project was displayed at the ‘‘Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair 2003’’ in Hyderabad recently. Srividya and Sriram won the gold medal there and will represent India, with seven other national winners, at the fair in May. ‘‘When they go to the US, they won’t be representing our school,’’ says Kalyani Venkatraman, school headmistress. ‘‘They will be representing our country.’’
