17-year-old student invents anti-sexual assault footwear

The teenage boy and student from Telengana could simply near the incidents of sexual violence against women that characterizes each passing day in India any longer.

After witnessing multiple instances of disturbing and life-changing acts of violence against women, as well as attending many protests with his mother to end the canker, but to no avail, Siddharth Mandala decided to help in his own small way.

He spent years working on the “ElectroShoe”, a unique type of anti-sexual assault footwear that electrocutes attackers by inflicting 0.1 Ampere of electricity while also alerting police and family members that the wearer is in danger. All the wearer has to do is kick the attacker.

Siddharth told The Better India that, “I invented a patent-pending device called ElectroShoe. It can electrocute the perpetrator instantly by inflicting 0.1 Ampere of electricity, while sending an alert for assistance to Police and family members.”

Explaining how he brought about this device, the teenager said “to accomplish this, I created a unique circuit board that uses footsteps to charge itself with the help of a concept called the ‘piezoelectric effect’ which I learned in my physics class. The more the user walks, the more energy is generated and stored in a rechargeable battery.”

Siddharth Mandala has no higher education in technology or science, but heroically made efforts to develop the shoe on his own.

The young man turned to professionals for help after suffering several shocks himself. He had to worry programmers and engineers, both online and offline, in order to get the answer he needed.

However, after 17 failed prototypes, he finally came up with a viable version.

He said “while experimenting, I faced electrocution twice, and my friend Abhishek even developed a nosebleed.”

His motivation to be persistent was from a row model.

“But whenever I felt like giving up, I remembered my favorite inventor Thomas Edison’s words, ‘I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light-bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.'”

Mandala has a few kinks left to work out and he still has to find a way to make the invention work with shoe styles other than flip-flops, but he has filed a patent and plans to market the ElectroShoe soon.

While putting finishing touches to the wonderful device, Mandala has become very passionate about pursuing an education and subsequent career in science and technology, in order to keep creating innovative crime-prevention products.

He has also become an activist and set up his own NGO to spread awareness about sexual assault. He also voluntarily teaches children basic coding.

17-year-old student invents anti-sexual assault footwear

A 17-year-old Indian, Siddharth Mandala has invented a device meant to help women protect themselves against sexual assailants.

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