SINGAPORE – It started with sneezing and coughing. Sahana Ramaprasad, 17, noticed that she and her sister had allergic reactions to dust in their surroundings.
Using a microchip connected to a sensor, Sahana developed an air quality monitor after her O levels in December 2025 to track the surrounding air.
The sensor monitors the surrounding air quality and sends the data to an Internet of Things-based platform, where she can view information such as the concentration of air particles and which gives her an estimated air quality index.
She said: “I was trying to upload a code inside the sensor to get it to work. I tried multiple times, but it didn’t work. It kept on giving me errors, which kind of frustrated me. However, I was able to overcome it after taking a break and doing more research on how to properly connect it. In the end, I was able to do it.”
“Monitoring the air quality helps us identify when dust levels may be higher, so we know when to close the window, clean the room more thoroughly, or avoid staying in dusty areas for too long.”
Her interest in science and her hands-on approach put the Tampines Meridian Junior College student among the 200 recipients across 20 schools to be awarded the Ministry of Education’s Engineering and Tech Programme Scholarship (ETPS) in July.
This scholarship is given to pre-university students with a solid foundation in the fields of mathematics and science and a strong desire to further their study into interdisciplinary and real-life applications.
The award spans two years, providing Singaporean students with an annual allowance of $1,000 and school fees, as well as a one-week ETPS workshop and a work attachment or internship programme during the June or December holidays in their second year of scholarship.
For Sahana, this scholarship allows her to better explore engineering. Notably, she signed up for the programme because of the “partnerships with other companies and workshops, which we do not get to experience in our daily lives, especially in a classroom-based setting”.
“But through this scholarship, I can learn more about engineering and what the engineering professionals do, which is very meaningful.”
She has been exploring engineering design thinking as well as taking up online Python programming courses.
Sahana added that this project “hasn’t eliminated our allergies, but it has helped us take simple preventative measures to reduce our exposure and better manage our symptoms”.