A US-based Indian-origin middle school girl has just won $25,000 (Rs 21 lakh) for inventing a fire-detection device that works faster than the average smoke detector.

12-year-old Shanya Gill from San Jose, California, won the Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award, the top prize in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge competition in which 65,000 middle schoolers participated.

According to the Society for Science, in the summer of 2022, a fire destroyed a restaurant behind Shanya’s house.

“Since then, my mother has become increasingly cautious, always asking me to double-check that the kitchen stove is turned off before leaving our house,” Shanya said.

One day, Shanya discovered that thermal cameras can detect heat loss in homes during the winter months. She wondered if these cameras could also spot house fires more quickly than traditional smoke detectors.

That incident inspired her to create a fire-detection system that involved connecting an affordable thermal camera to a compact computer. She then programmed the system to differentiate between people-which were identified as warm objects moving horizontally-and heat sources, such as an active gas burner, which were identified as hot objects that remained stationary.

“With an early warning system, we could save thousands of lives every year,” Shanya said.

Shanya then programmed the system to send a text message when it detected a heat source but no human presence for a continuous 10-minute period. Shanya’s system accurately detected human presence 98% of the time and heat sources 97% of the time.

A city manager in the United States has been suspended after staffers were sent an email allegedly showing him masturbating on a couch. According to the New York Post, the video showed Kansas City Manager Doug Gerber in a compromising position and now he is expected to be fired. The email was sent to several employees from an anonymous account with the subject line: “MOST IMPORTANT”. The video appeared to have been filmed by Mr Gerber himself, who seemed to be alone during the act. 

It is unclear who sent the clip and how they got it, the outlet reported. “This is just a disturbed individual trying to cause issues with the city,” a city IT employee wrote to staff members in the Kansas City suburb.

However, speaking to the Kansas City Star, the anonymous sender said that they wanted to expose Mr Gerber’s online behaviour. “We don’t hesitate to expose people involved in these dubious and un-Catholic practices,” the sender reportedly said.

Talking about the incident, Shawnee Mayor Michelle Distler said she was “not incredibly surprised” at the scandal because of unspecified concerns over Mr Gerber’s behaviour at his previous job. However, according to council president Eric Jenkins, the city manager had been investigated over rumours of previous “impropriety” before he was hired, and the consultant leading the job search assured them that “she thoroughly searched the background and had found absolutely nothing that would give us cause not to select him”. 

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The Post noted that Mr Gerber could be a victim under a state law forbidding such sexual material from being shared without permission. But the city council in an emergency meeting unanimously voted to put Mr Gerber on administrative leave. 

“This email was received at City Hall, we’ve been told, Sept. 29th. I didn’t find out about this situation until Halloween night,” just over a month later, said Mr Jenkins, the council president. “If he failed to communicate on this, what else has he failed to communicate on?” Mr Jenkins told KCTV, adding, “I mean, this was kind of the first big test he had, and he didn’t do very well. So I think our actions were appropriate, they were measured”. 

Now, an interim manager is being chosen and Mr Gerber is expected to be fired, said Mr Jenkins. “I don’t see how this man can move forward being the leader of our staff and our go-to guy as the city manager,” he added. 

Additionally, three city council candidates have also issued a joint statement calling for an investigation into Mr Gerber’s actions and those of the city council in the month after the video was first shared.

On the other hand, Mr Gerbe has refused to address the scandal. “I think it’s not in the city;s best interest right now to comment,” he said. 

Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Wednesday expressed confidence that his party will buck the trend of the incumbent dispensation in Rajasthan being voted out every five years and form the government after the November 25 assembly polls.

He alleged that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to divert people’s attention from the issue of development.

Sachin Pilot, who was in Tonk from where he is contesting the elections, said, “The tradition of 30 years in Rajasthan…five years of BJP, five years of Congress…that tradition is about to be broken. People have seen BJP rule at the Centre and they want a change.” 

“BJP is trying everything to mislead the public but our issue is of development. The party is fighting the elections with unity, so I can say with full confidence that we will form the government in Rajasthan,” he told PTI.

The former deputy chief minister said that in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also, the Congress will return to power with a huge majority.

The results in Telangana will shock every one and the Congress will form the government there as well, he said.

“If our government is formed in these four-five states, the Congress and the INDIA alliance will become stronger. This alliance will win the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2024,” he said.