Bengaluru lad gets White House Honour

Hailing from Bengaluru, 33 year old Gokul Krishnan who is pursuing his PhD in the Learning Sciences at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Development in the US received White House honours with his innovative mobile Makerspace that promises to brighten the lives of chronically ill children.

An elated Gokul said that it was exciting to generate awareness about learning opportunities in hospital settings and trying to give new hope for children with chronic illnesses.

Stating that his journey began with a leukemia patient, Brandon in 2013 who wanted to be an engineer and had given him a ‘mystery box’ with some electronic equipment which created night light alerting the nurse without disturbing other patients, Gokul said that it inspired him to engage with other children with chronic illnesses which eventually led to the mobile Makerspace.

Filled with equipment for small-scale engineering projects, the metal cart - mobile Makerspace provides children with an innovative outlet, pushes social interchange and improves patient healthcare with increase in physical mobility.

Gokul admits that his research still has a long way to go and to scale up his idea; he is all set to start a new position at the New York Hall of Science as a research fellow. Adding that he is trying to understand how learning takes place in a hospital setting, Gokul said that he would dedicate his life to create new learning experiences for such children and intends to have the mobile Makerspace in hospitals across India.