The students of APSWR School Jr College Girls Tallapalem Visakhapatnam District always felt that the lone hearingimpaired student among them was bright but quiet.

The few of them who tried to understand why she was so withdrawn quickly figured out that she felt left out at most times. And adding to the difficulty was her hearing aid, which was very visible, and so stood out as a ‘disability’ in the crowd.

“Due to this, she eventually lost interest in academics and studying. It made her conscious that everyone around knows that she has some disability,” says Priyanka.

Forming a team, Priyanka surveyed a few other hearingimpaired people and received similar feedback.

“That’s when we thought we should innovate a hearingaid machine that would be invisible, yet serve the purpose,” she says

After months of trial and error, the team came up with a final prototype – the ‘Magic Hearing’ – a hearing device that helps while still being as inconspicuous as possible.

There were quite a few challenges that the team had to face while building this innovation.

The students struggled to keep the product minimalistic initially as there were many wires involved in the prototype. Another issue they faced was to cancel unnecessary noise in the device.

“With the help of menotrs, the prototype was eventually successful and tested as well,” Priyanka says.