Keralite youngster Nikita Hari has attracted international attention by solving an 80-year-old problem in Electrical Engineering. Eight decades ago, a discovery proved that Gallium nitrate could be used instead of Silicon as an electrical conductor, but so far no scientist could find a cost-efficient method to put this idea into practice.
But Nikita demonstrated how this could be done. Her experiments showed that by converting this idea into practical use, power loss could be avoided by minimising heat and the size of electrical equipment could be significantly reduced.
Nikita, hailing from Kadathanadu region of Kerala – she belongs to Valiyapurayil House, Pazhankavu in Vadakara – completed the research which led to this discovery with a Rs 2 crore scholarship at the Energy Department of Cambridge University.
Four years ago, Nikita was selected to conduct research in Electrical Engineering at the Cambridge University under the head of the Energy Department with a Rs 50 lakh scholarship. She was the first student from India to win the scholarship. While engaged in this research, Nikita was also chosen as one among the UK’s Top-50 women engineers.
Another honour that came Nikita’s way was the British Power Electronics Council’s Award, which she won three times consecutively.
Most recently, the youngster has been selected for the post-doctoral fellowship for carrying out research in Oxford University. This fellowship carries an amount of Rs 50 lakh. She has also been invited to the Buckingham Palace, after being chosen as the Global Ambassador of the British Monarch’s Queen Elizabeth Prize in Engineering.
With Nikita’s discovery, the size of many electrical equipment now in use could be reduced to that of a matchbox. This is a major milestone as scientists around the world are searching for ways to tackle global warming. When electrical equipment are used, up to 10 % of the power is lost owing to heat. Nikita’s research suggests a method to solve this problem.
Nikita had done her plus-two from Rani Public School in Vadakara and pursued her BTech in Electronic Instrumentation from CUSAT, securing the second rank. She followed it up with a first rank with gold medal in MTech Power Electronics from SRM College in Chennai. She later resigned her job at NIT, Kozhikode to take up the research offer from Cambridge.
Haridas, Nikita’s father, is the owner of Nikita Polymer Index Electronics. Nikita’s mother is Geetha and brother Arun Hari. The family resides at Malikadavu. Nikita will now leave for further research to the UK on March 1 on a one-year project.