19-year-old city student Ronak bags silver medal at 2024 Climate Science Olympiad
Ronak Mahajan, 19, a young aspiring technology developer from Amritsar has secured the 14th position globally in 2024 Climate Science Olympiad, an international competition supported by the United Nations, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, with over 100,000 participants from 190 countries. It invites young innovators every year to compete by presenting innovation-based, tech-driven solutions to real world problems that are a direct result of climate change.
Ronak, who did his class 12 from Spring Dale Senior Secondary School this year, is a self-confessed climate change activist. A JEE aspirant, he emerged among the top 3,000 contestants selected globally for the semi-finals in July this year and presented a comprehensive, research-backed solution within a strict three-hour time-frame, regarding climate change issues shortlisted by them.
“I presented a technology-based solution for saving islands that have been predicted to be submerged by 2050, if the climate change crisis continues. The idea was to set up solar desalination systems for potable water, back it up with existing research studies and present a model which provides a realistic solution and not concepts and theories,” he shared. For this, he cited 40 research papers that he studied in detail, earning him the 14th position globally out of 100,000 participants and a silver medal.
Parallel to this, his passion towards what he calls his ‘mission’ made him develop Climate Harbor, an innovative non-profit initiative that converts hard-to-access environmental data into free, easily accessible resources. “The platform, active since August this year, has 11,000 users with a diverse user base including farmers, environmentalists and climate researchers. It provides estimates of fuel emission for 125 types of hydrocarbon-based fuels, calculated along with a customised visual map that is easy to use and provides information about 10 or more environmental factors. It also gives real-time updates on weather and climate factors useful to farmers and locals,” he said.
His future goal is to work towards developing more technology-based solutions to climate change challenges. “My maternal home is in Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh. As a result, I was always very attached to the environment. I go there every year twice, and have seen the negative changes in the snowfall and weather pattern due to climate change and human activities and was deeply affected by it. That was the reason why I got into environmental activism. Now, I want to take this further and create an impact that mitigates this challenge,” he said.
