Royal West students headed to Hydro-Québec Super Expo-sciences

Twenty-three exhibitors will represent the Educational Alliance for Science & Technology (EAST) at the 45th edition of the Hydro-Québec Super Expo-sciences, Quebec final from April 19 to 21, at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal.

From the EMSB, Anubhab Bhowmick and Srijith Pradeep Kumar of Royal West Academy in Montreal West will compete with their project about a SmartFlow Traffic System

The students recently competed at EAST’s Hydro-Québec Expo-Sciences, regional final at Laval Senior Academy. Over the course of three days, 1,000 visitors discovered the scientific projects of young people from various schools in the region. The public had the opportunity to meet 131 exhibitors across 83 projects who were particularly proud to present their projects.

“Our project is basically a smart traffic light, where instead of giving the same time for the light for all sides, it takes the number of cars on each side, and compares the inputs given, and then it prioritizes the side with most cars, and its parallel side,” Srijith explained. “Once the time is over for those two sides, it would then be succeeded by the other remaining set of sides. This project will be carried out on a four-way intersection.”

As Anubhad continues, IR (infrared) sensors detect the number of cars from each side and transfer this information directly to the microcontroller (Arduino Mega). The green light would stay on for a duration equivalent to the number of cars multiplied by two seconds for each car. Before doing so, it takes into account, out of the two sides, which one has the highest object count. Once the green lights have completed their flashing, they would become yellow (for precisely less than two seconds), and then turn red. After all four sides have turned red, the cycle would repeat continuously.

About the English Montreal School Board

With a youth and adult sector population of more than 35,000 students, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is the largest English public school board in Quebec. Established on July 1, 1998, when the province created new boards along linguistic lines, the EMSB network consists of 73 schools and centres. For more details, visit the EMSB website at www.emsb.qc.ca.