OSA Ambassador - Nivaan

We are excited to have Nivaan as an OSA Ambassador for 2024. Nivaan has been a participant for the past 4 years in many different categories, and has collected winning prizes for his Programming, Apps and Robotics entries. He is excited to share his passion for the competition and science with others.

Get to know Nivaan!

How did you first get involved in OSA?

I first got involved in OSA because of information about OSA at the school that I go to (i.e. St. Peter's College). This information got me really excited because OSA conducts competition across multiple science fields. One of the areas that I have been especially interested in is Robotics and Programming. I have been doing Lego robotics since I was 5-years old. So, I wanted to participate in OSA and I got full support and encouragement from my parents for this. 

Why do you participate?

OSA has become the highlight of each year- something I eagerly wait for. I participate in OSA because I have been very interested in science and technology since childhood, I spend several hours watching videos on the topic of science, robotics builds, prototype machines, etc. OSA offers me a great opportunity to apply some of this knowledge gained to build my own things. I really like it. I probably learn more science in doing a single OSA project than compared to the entire year's science curriculum at the school! 

What advice would you give to other OSA entrants?

Participation requires a lot of effort and commitment. Those projects are fun but they cannot be seen as 'fun' only. Like any competition it needs to be approached with all seriousness. In return, you gain a large amount of knowledge and experience, which makes it all worthwhile. Needless to say that we build character strengths such as perseverance and 'try and try until you succeed at last' like a true scientist :). 

What is your favourite project that you have submitted?

All projects submitted to OSA are my favourites whether I received a prize or not. However, I learnt a lot when I built the "Plant Health Monitoring System" in 2022. This was the first time I used Arduino. It was very challenging, but after a lot of effort the prototype for it worked. Likewise, when I built an "Articulated Robot-arm", I learnt a lot again. For the very first time I was using my own 3-D printer to build the whole prototype from scratch. It was extremely difficult and I could barely get the prototype working. Both these projects are my favourites as they challenged me, they were complex, and a lot of fun.