A long-distance hugging device, a door handle that sanitises itself and a smartwatch that beeps when someone comes too close to you. These are some of the innovative ideas of children to fight COVID-19. At least 15 such innovative ideas have been turned into working prototypes under the initiative 'make-a-thon' launched by TWorks, in collaboration with What if.

The aim of this initiative is to build products and solutions to assist and aid in combating COVID-19. It features a unique collaboration between student inventors and makers and has been initiated with the goal of putting children in the forefront to come up with ideas that could solve the problems related to the pandemic.

All the inventions will be showcased at a virtual celebration on Saturday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Public can attend the live broadcasted event at TWorks Facebook page.

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, R.S. Praveen Kumar, Secretary, Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TTWREIS) and Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS), and Sujai Karampuri, CEO, TWorks will participate in the event.

Make-a-thon will bring together children with makers, artists and designers under one roof to give a voice to kids' innovations.

As part of the programme, makers have to turn a child's idea into a prototype that can communicate well to the audience and this can be a working model, a 3D render, a miniature model or even an animation.

It was a month ago that TWorks in collaboration with What If had launched the programme. Students from government schools and private schools were invited to submit ideas and inventions to solve the COVID-19 related problems around them.

The event received over 300 submissions from 30 schools across Telangana. Fifteen of these innovative ideas have been turned into working prototypes by the makers and hobbyists with TWorks and What if, providing mentorship and prototyping services to their ideas.

TWorks is an initiative of the government of Telangana with a vision to create and celebrate a culture of hobbyists, makers and innovators in India who explore and experiment without the fear of failure.

What If is an innovative creative studio based in Dubai.

(IANS)