NEW DELHI: The Badminton Association of India (BAI) today announced a cash award of Rs 5 lakh to Kidambi Srikanth for clinching the Australian Open Super Series title in Sydney today.
The 24-year-old Srikanth extended his stellar run of form to become the first Indian male shuttler to win two consecutive Superseries title.
Celebrating the historic moment, BAI president Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced a bounty for the shuttler, who not only won his fourth superseries title but also also became the only sixth badminton player in the world to make it to three consecutive superseries finals on the trot.
In the finals, he was up against the current Olympic champion Chen Long of China and the Gunter lad was at his supreme best against the World No. 6, winning the match 22-20, 21-16 in a rather comfortable manner.
Sarma was delighted at Srikanth’s feat and congratulated him after his amazing win.
“We are really very proud of Srikanth for his achievements. It is simply phenomenal.He has not only made the whole country proud once again but has etched his name among the best and no word would enough to praise Srikanth,” Sarma said.
Reiterating the president’s views, BAI secretary general Anup Narang added, “It is indeed a very huge achievement for Srikanth and Indian badminton. The entire BAI is in a jubilant mood and I am sure so is the badminton fans across the country.”
Apart from Srikanth, the performance of other Indian players at the Australian Open Superseries were also impressive as Sai Praneeth, P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal all made it to the quarterfinals of the tournament. (AGENCIES)
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SCIENCE-DEVICES
New flexible devices can
be powered by body heat
NEW YORK, June 25:
Scientists have designed a flexible energy harvester that may pave the way for wearable devices which are powered using only body heat.
Wearable devices used to monitor a variety of health and environmental measures are becoming increasingly popular.
The performance and efficiency of flexible devices, however, pale in comparison to rigid devices, which have been superior in their ability to convert body heat into usable energy.
“We wanted to design a flexible thermoelectric harvester that does not compromise on the material quality of rigid devices yet provides similar or better efficiency,” said Mehmet Ozturk, professor at North Carolina State University in the US.
Using rigid devices is not the best option when you consider a number of different factors. Superior contact resistance – or skin contact – with flexible devices, as well as the ergonomic and comfort considerations to the device wearer, researchers said.
One of the key challenges of a flexible harvester is to connect thermoelectric elements in series using reliable, low-resistivity interconnects, they said.
The team used a liquid metal of gallium and indium – a common, non-toxic alloy called EGaIn – to connect the thermoelectric ‘legs’.
“The electric resistance of these connections is very low, which is critical since the generated power is inversely proportional to the resistance: Low resistance means more power,” researchers said.
“Using liquid metal also adds a self-healing function: If a connection is broken, the liquid metal will reconnect to make the device work efficiently again. Rigid devices are not able to heal themselves,” Ozturk said.
Future work will focus on improving the efficiencies of these flexible devices, by using materials and techniques to further eliminate parasitic resistances, researchers said.
The study was published in the journal Applied Energy. (AGENCIES)
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