Season 3, Episode 15: Aryan

Aryan returns to Climate Action Figures to discuss advancements in his microplastic-collecting robot, his awards at the National Science Fair, and his new project on pipeline inspection technology inspired by Calgary's water main break. 

00:00 Introduction and QuickFix Tip

02:10 Aryan's Microplastic Robot

04:09 Science Fair Success and National Recognition

07:24 International Exposition in Abu Dhabi

12:02 New Project: Pipeline Inspection Robot

18:16 Climate Action and Final Thoughts

Real Talk Interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFQehVNKuyU (11:00)

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Transcript

Aryan 0:02

I'm back. It's Aryan and welcome to Climate Action Figures.

John 0:16

Hello and welcome to a unique episode of Climate Action Figures. My name is John Whidden, and this week on the show, back by popular demand, Aryan. But first, this week's QuickFix submitted by Roger in Green Valley, Arizona. Roger says, if you're emptying a glass of liquid or a cup of coffee or your water bottle outside, empty it on a plant or a bush instead of into the gutter. So thanks to Roger for sending that in and welcome back Aryan.

Aryan 0:53

Hi John. Thanks for having me.

John 0:54

Great to have you back. What do you think about that QuickFix?

Aryan 0:57

Yeah, I, I think it's amazing. It's actually pretty relatable whenever I come back from like school or just anywhere, and I have like a filled water bottle. I'm, I'm about to just throw it down the sink and my mom's like, no, no, no. Aryan Aryan. Stop. Put it in the plants. And my mom's like a huge, like, she loves plants. I mean, I like plants too. And so, yeah, I just empty it out on my plants or even bushes. And what I thought was pretty interesting was coffee or like coffee ground. So like, I didn't even know

John 1:20

Yeah.

Aryan 1:21

that's pretty cool.

John 1:22

We put our coffee grounds in our compost, but coffee on a plant, I guess that should be okay if it's just watered down coffee, right?

Aryan 1:28

mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like watered down, like,

John 1:30

I mean, watered down coffee grounds is what I meant.

Aryan 1:32

yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent.

John 1:34

Yeah, we always put our water around the house that's left over that's not got anything harmful in it on the plants all the time. So why not use it again? Right.

Aryan 1:43

Absolutely.

John 1:44

A couple of months ago, we aired an episode featuring listener and viewer favorite episodes. So if you're catching up and you need some tips about which guest to check out next, go back to episode 10 from this season. And several of our audience members mentioned Aryan from season one, episode 11, and they were wondering what he was up to now. So thanks so much for joining us, Aryan, and to answer those questions.

Aryan 2:10

Absolutely.

John 2:10

Let's start with your microplastic robot.'Cause that was the focus in season one. When we talked with you. We talked about you winning the Jack Leslie Youth Environment Grant and you used that money to build something. And, uh, tell us about that robot you built.

Aryan 2:23

After seeing, uh, plastics and small piece of plastics, microplastics build up in ponds and just lakes around my house, I was pretty like devastated. Just kind of like worried, uh, especially after seeing a lot of the geese leave the area, even like during the summertime. And so it kind of sparked my interest just after seeing these little like specs, you know, what could I do? I love engineering, I love robotics, and how can I maybe build some type of bot that could even just go clean it up, uh, without having just a human have to do some like hard labor to do that. I have been working on a robot that uses a technology called UV spectroscopy. I could talk all day about it. To basically detect and collect microplastics. One thing to like, kind of like make it unique was to make sure it doesn't filter out organic matter. So that could be like sticks.. Piece of grass, just anything that isn't a piece of plastic that the actual environment needs. And so I designed a system that can also figure out what's a plastic, what's not, and then filter it. I really hope that this technology can be used one day in the waters and also just inspire others to create change as well.

John 3:31

For our YouTube viewers, sorry for those of you who are listening, and we're looking at a picture right now of that robot and it looks like a piece of Tupperware with a bunch of electronics in it. No.

Aryan 3:40

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

John 3:41

was it a Tupperware from your kitchen or what?

Aryan 3:43

yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly, it was, I, like, one of my goals for this project was to make it DIY and I was in grade 8, I was like 13 years old, so I was like, I just, just used whatever was in my house. I didn't need an industrial grade system or anything. And I mean, I still managed to, uh, create like a kind of proof of concept, so I was happy.

John 4:01

Very cool. So this thing travels through waterways. It checks out whether something's organic or not. And if it's not it, it filters it out. Right.

Aryan 4:09

Yeah.

John 4:09

So you took that to the Calgary City Science fair and how did that go?

Aryan 4:13

I went to the Calgary City Science Fair, a lot of students come, they present, you know, all their science. It's, it's an amazing event. Honestly, one of my favorite days of the year. And they just get judged by engineers, all these different types of people. There is awards to be given. I was in grade 8 at the time and I just wanted to show off my science and just kind of like learn also from expert judges to how to improve my project. And I did get that, uh, feedback, so I'm really happy with that. But, uh, what was kind of unexpected was I got the CYSF of Calgary Science Fair Travel Award and so that is basically a scholarship to go for a trip to the National Canada wide Science Fair. And I was in awe honestly.

John 4:53

Well, congratulations on that. And so you went to the 2024 National Science Fair, is that right?

Aryan 4:59

Yes, yes.

John 5:00

And where was that held?

Aryan 5:01

Yeah. That was in Ottawa.

John 5:02

You must have been A bit nervous about presenting at such a big event.

Aryan 5:06

Oh, absolutely. Wooo, it was, it was really nervous, like I remember. Like it. It was a seven day event, genuinely one of the best weeks of my life. I just met so many amazing people. It definitely was very stressful though, too, but I guess like that's kind of the fun of it when you're like, like what's an event without just being stressed to like, kind of like meet, like to get judged.

John 5:25

most people like to go and get judged and be stressed, right?

Aryan 5:28

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, like, maybe I should have worded that a little better, but, uh, yeah. There was like a setup day where you set up your project. You have to have like a poster, there was a lot of social networking. So I met people from Vancouver all the way to New Brunswick. It was just amazing. There was around like 400 other projects, so like 400 of the best scientists in all of Canada out of like a pool of, I think the, the number was like 25,000. So that's like that I, I just realized about that. So that was. crazy. I got judged by people with tons of experience industry professionals. And it was definitely way more stressful than, uh, the Calgary Youth Science Fair. But I did learn a lot more. And at the, uh, national Science Fair, there was also awards there I received the gold medal. The highest prestige you could get in a junior category. I also got the best in environmental sciences award. And finally I got a grand award. It was called the Youth Can Innovate Award. And it's just basically for junior innovators that demonstrate innovation at a very high level.

John 6:27

Well, congratulations again. Was your project quite different than the one you presented in, in Calgary or like had you modified it a lot?

Aryan 6:35

Oh yeah, I did modify a lot. There's like, I think, uh, around a one and a half month break, but, uh, I really grinded during that time honestly because I was like exposed to like this whole new like level and I was like, yo, I gotta up my game. Plus I get to work more of my projects. So mean I was happy.

John 6:50

What was the biggest change you made between Calgary and the National Science Fair?

Aryan 6:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think the biggest change was definitely in the testing. So I remember, uh, last time when we talked, I was kind of like building on my robot, kind of like thinking, you know, what type of technology study are you As I was like, took a long time to do that. And so at the, I did test that. But not as extensively until the Calgary Science Fair. Also, like the weather was way better. So I actually went outside. I tested in like real world conditions. Those tests went pretty well.

John 7:19

I am told that you didn't stop there. Things continued to roll. Tell us what happened next.

Aryan 7:26

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, the national like pool, so these 400 students from. Canada wide science for 2023, so a year before me and 2024. Also 2025, they get basically an email to go to this event called MILSET-ESI. It's a worldwide exposition. So k people come from all over the world to present their science and not everyone can go from the national pool. So there was like an application process and everything. And so fortunately I was one of the 35 people to be accepted into that pool. And I got to go to Abu Dhabi just earlier in October of 2025 to present my work, uh, at an international stage.

John 8:04

Wow, so was this another level of science fair or was it an exposition?

Aryan 8:09

This is like deemed as an exposition. It was meant to be like non-competitive, but when you get to the event, there isn't really any competition, but I liked that honestly because the point of it is just to meet other people, to learn and to connect with others and get a new understanding of science. You see all the people from different backgrounds and some people from a specific region were working on these types of projects. And other people work in like a different type of like, kind of theme of projects. And it was like very interesting to just kind of learn about all their worldviews and stuff too.

John 8:38

And not be concerned about competition.

Aryan 8:40

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

John 8:42

Plus, if you win, what are you gonna do? Go to Galactic's.

Aryan 8:45

Yeah. I mean like that would be a great opportunity.

John 8:49

Did you get to travel around a little and see what Abu Dhabi's like?

Aryan 8:52

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We Abu Dhabi has some like really crazy places. Like, honestly, like I kind of wish I lived there. There's like, oh yeah, we went to like, uh, one of the malls, but they're huge. Like, firstly, the malls are huge. There was like this big like science center or it was like more about like lights and it was just like this really interesting light show. I know a couple of teams that also went to watch like the NBA, I don't know if that's like interesting, but like the NBA was playing there in, in Dubai, so

John 9:18

Wow.

Aryan 9:19

drove there.

John 9:20

When people think about Abu Dhabi, they don't always think about the most environmentally minded place on earth. I mean, it can be a little excessive in some regards. So did you see some of that or did you get a sense of something that would change people's minds about Abu Dhabi?

Aryan 9:35

I kind I have to agree with you honestly to that. I've, I, I remember I was like exiting the airport firstly, they're like in the middle of a desert, so like, kind of just like building in that area. I guess it was because of, I mean, like, it's because of the oil. So like they kind of like usually build around that. But, uh. you could definitely see it's like everything is so artificial. I did not see a lot of green stuff biodiversity the city is like still like relatively, uh, small. So like, that's like, it's like not like crazy developed, but they are planning to develop like a lot. I just guess I was also like indoors many, most of the time, so because day was very hot.

John 10:10

you get to use to the heat after a while or just wanted to get to the air conditioning?

Aryan 10:14

I did kind of get used to the heat, I think like after, maybe like the third or fourth day actually, no, it was still pretty, pretty hot. Like, I'm gonna be honest, like, it's like you could like, kind of like the heat. You sometimes don't, it's like a love hate relationship. I don't know. It's like that.

John 10:27

Well, I always say, you know, in minus 40 I can bundle up and survive outside. In plus 40, I don't know. I don't know how long you can survive without air conditioning. Right.

Aryan 10:38

You can't just have like a walking air conditioner

John 10:40

Now Aryan, you said you bonded with the people at the Canada wide Science fair and really got tight with those people. But having traveled all that distance and being with other Canadians, that must have been pretty special and cool as well to, to hang with that group.

Aryan 10:54

Yeah, yeah. I, yeah, I actually did. I still talk to so many people from the Canada wide team. The kids, like from like when you get to kind of a national or international stage, you meet the the most genius of genius people. I just want to learn more from these people. I remember just talking to them, their passion just went out of the roof, honestly, like their projects. I met a lot of people whose projects were in like the healthcare sector and healthcare to me, like it's, it's so cool, but it's like at the same time so confusing with all this like jargon and stuff, but it's just so inspiring. Even when you don't know what somebody else is saying. When you just say you can just tell by their body language. That was really inspiring to me and I'm still friends with many of them. Even like NASA was there, which was like pretty crazy. So I got to talk

John 11:36

Wow.

Aryan 11:37

scientists from there.

John 11:38

Wow. That's very cool. And these, these youth, including yourself, are the future scientific leaders of the earth. So that's pretty amazing when you think about it.

Aryan 11:47

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was really inspiring.

John 11:50

Now, I believe you said you took your robot to this international Abu Dhabi conference. Right?

Aryan 11:55

Yeah, absolutely.

John 11:56

So we've been totally focused on that. Are there other things you've been working on lately that, uh, we might be interested in hearing about? I

Aryan 12:03

mean, like my interest in engineering just comes from problems I see just kind of around me. I really like reading the news, uh, and just kind of like following up with like current events. Recently if you live in Calgary, you are most likely to have heard about or even like, kind of felt the consequences of the, uh, pipe burst that happened, uh, firstly a couple weeks ago and also last year, 2024,

John 12:25

So for, for those of our viewers and listeners who are not familiar with Calgary or even Canada, this was a huge water main that ruptured, correct?

Aryan 12:33

Absolutely. Yeah. It was a, it was really critical water main and it just ruptured, uh, yeah. And it

John 12:38

Causing a lot of problems for Calgarians. Like, just tell us what was some of the effect for you.

Aryan 12:43

The city told us that we can't, we have to first like really cut down on our water usage. That was one of the first main things. And so it was kind of like a little annoyance, but uh, it wasn't like too serious of a problem for me. Outdoor water restrictions were also things, so I couldn't really also like water, the grass, things like that. Uh, the effects hit hard actually to some people I knew there was a, there's like a couple communities that couldn't even drink water. Boil water advisories, things like that. The real issue though, comes in like the cost. The, uh, just all these different bureaucratic things that to happen as a result, and if you kind of do your, your digging in, it's a huge burden on the city and it's kind of what inspired me to think about more about this issue and just really dig deep in. And I decided to kind of create a project around that.

John 13:30

A project around dealing with water main breaks or.

Aryan 13:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So after seeing the water main like break, I kind of questioned to myself, I'm like, why did this happen in the first place? And so at a high level, what happened was, in these pipes, basically, like say this is a pipe, there's a bunch of like little wires that are kind of like, uh, wrapped around it or coiled around it, they were just kind of like snapping and it's like normal for some to snap, but too many snapped and the whole pipe just, just let out. And, Calgary, it's budget wasn't really centered around pipeline inspection or maintenance because people don't really care about pipes, obviously. I mean, like, I didn't really know about it either. I kind of thought, why can't I. Do my part to kind of propose some new solution to try to kind of solve this issue so it doesn't happen again. And so recently, over the past couple of uh, months, I have been working on a pipeline inspection technology robot that can essentially, like, go in like some types of pipes and kind of inspect them using all these different types of technologies, and kind of let the city know in a very cheap and effective, like quick way that, uh, something is wrong with the pipe. Because in the end I believe that is kind of what the issue is. Now, know if our budget's going to get higher, but we can make sure that the technology used to inspect these pipes can be less money or easier to kind of like put into the pipe in the first place. And I've been working on that technology.

John 15:01

So would that be a sort of a, a robot that would float through the pipe and, take pictures, take video?

Aryan 15:07

So basically, um, every pipe, uh, like imagine this is like a pipe, like the pipe is right here and there's pipe here. There's kind of access points. So there's like something that's like little valves basically. Um, you can access them to like manholes or fire hydrants. And you can, they're like little, uh, axis valves. So basically you can drop your, like robot in. And so it kind of goes through this pipe. And some pipes are pressurized. Some of them just flow with the flow, like from gravity. Um, there's many different types of pipes. You kind of put the robot in, yeah, and you're right, it kind of like goes with the flow of the pipe. And so my plans right now are to use, firstly yes, a camera, uh, especially with like AI technology especially because that is like kind of coming into the ecosystem in today's world right now. So that kind of, at a high level, what AI can do is basically like take pictures of this pipe and see like, oh, is there corrosion? Is there like a crack? And it's like a pretty cool technology. And I also plan to incorporate something called lidar. And so. It's basically a little sensor that shoots lasers like everywhere. Thousands of times per second. And essentially what you can do with this technology is that if I kind of like say this is like a, a wall right here, if I shoot a laser at it, it's the laser's also gonna reflect back. So I kind of transduce it and then it reflects and goes back. And that can tell you about the distance of an object. So if you kind of think about that happening. Thousands of times per second. Even the smallest of cracks in this wall, or a pipe wall, for example, can be detected. And you can get the, get this kind of like 3D map of what a pipe looks like. There are a couple more methods, like acoustic methods where, say you're in a water pipe, this like microphone is listening for any cracks. So if there's a crack that happens, it kinda goes like. Then like you can see like if this is a little like wave or like whatever the mic listens to it kinda goes like, and so you kind of can like listen to that.

John 16:59

Wow,

Aryan 16:59

yeah

John 17:00

That sounds really interesting. All the best as you pursue that, and I'll just take a moment to say if anyone is listening or watching the podcast and, uh, really interested in talking with Aryan and maybe hiring him for a project, I'm his agent. Just wanted to let you know that. Seriously, though you have clearly a bright future and as we look toward the future, do you have any ideas about where you might want to go with all these ideas and, uh, what kind of a job you might wanna do eventually?

Aryan 17:28

I'm keeping my options open, but uh, I. I really like engineering, so obviously I'd probably want to do some type of job where I get to build things, get to design systems but I really hope that kind of these projects that I'm doing slowly right now, they're kind of building all my knowledge about all these different types of systems and just like my love for the environment and one day. I hope to maybe even create like maybe my own initiative or like my own kind of like startup or company that solves it instead of like, maybe even just like working under someone. Maybe I could just start my own thing and kind of like hire someone else. And that's like obviously very farfetched, but it doesn't hurt to think of it like that.

John 18:07

Well, we could listen to you for a long time, but we're gonna have to wrap up and, uh, let me ask you if you've chosen a climate action for us today.

Aryan 18:16

I kind of like make sure to reuse things, especially like technologies before I throw anything out. A couple weeks ago my mom was like, about to throw an old computer away, but I kind of was like, you know, what's the point? It's just gonna go in the trash. Like, there's no like way to kind of like refurbish it. And so I actually just kind of played around with the parts and I learned more about a computer. Plus I was like thinking, you know, maybe if I have another computer in the future, I could use it for like some small tasks. Maybe it like runs small tasks in the background. And so what I'm trying to say here is, before you throw something away, what that's basically doing is guaranteeing a spot in the landfill, and somebody's gonna have to like buy, uh, the same product new, and that's gonna cost, like manufacturing and emissions and all these different types of things. So maybe you can give it to someone else too, like sell it on eBay or just reuse it for another purpose. So I think like reusing is really important.

John 19:08

Now at the outset. I called this a unique episode of Climate Action Figures, and here comes another first, just before we ask Aryan what gives him hope, I wanna share a little story because we both appeared on the Ryan Jesperson podcast Real Talk last year, and uh, a few episodes later. And we'll put a link to this in the show notes. One of Ryan's audience, who is a 17-year-old named Alex, wrote in and, uh, shared something that we're gonna share with you right now. Take a listen.

19:39

we're stepping outside the news cycle, the focus on the positive, and, uh, this is an awesome one. This is an email in this edition of Positive Reflections, an email from Alex. Uh, she writes in, uh, to talk@ryanjesperson.com. Says, Jespo, Johnny. I'm, uh, Alex, a 17-year-old grade 12 student who's been struggling with climate anxiety for a while now. And you guys were ranking. Um, Alex is talking about our episode on, uh, June the seventh. This was our good news for people with climate anxiety, our real talk round table, uh, including just an incredible. Junior high school aged innovator, but back to Alex's email says, I've been struggling with climate anxiety for a while. You guys were ranking where you're at with climate anxiety from one to 10. Honestly. Says Alex. I've probably been at least an eight for quite a while now, and I often feel overwhelmed by the dire news about our planet's future. But I listened to your June 7th round table with the Climate Action Figures, podcasters, that gave me a glimmer of hope. And in particular, I loved how that junior high student Aryan's incredible innovations are happening right now in the fight against microplastics. How cool that he's from Calgary, by the way. He says, Alex. Uh, hearing him talk about his invention made me realize that while challenges are huge, so is human ingenuity. I check it out. I'm showing you on the screen right now what he's doing. You gotta watch this episode. If, if you didn't learn more about it, Aryan explains to us how his invention works and, uh, so cool. Uh, we have the creativity says, Alex, the determination to turn things around and hearing about these advancements reminded me that change is possible and it's being driven by passionate people all over the world, including right here in Alberta. And it gave me hope that if we all keep pushing for solutions and supporting sustainable practices, we can all make a real difference. So to my fellow real talkers says 17-year-old Alex. Let's stay informed, let's stay hopeful and keep fighting for our planet. She signs off, by the way, Alex a Gen Z'er.

John 21:32

So Aryan, that's pretty special to hear that you have had that kind of an impact on someone. What were your thoughts when you heard that?

Aryan 21:39

Honestly, I, I've, I was in awe. I'm like, wow. I, I can't believe it. Like, I just, I mean like, this all started as a project where I just kind of was like working in my home and I was fortunate enough to be on your show, and then it kind of just spiraled and I was now like inspiring other people to start something and it just made me just feel so good. And it also, made me want to kind of work even harder because I want to inspire people like around the world and that's kind of like a ripple effect. If I inspire someone, then they might inspire another person and just kind of like as a web. And I think that's just, it's just, that's just the beauty of it.

John 22:17

Clearly you did give Alex and many others, I'm sure, hope. And so that leads us to ask you Aryan, what gives you hope?

Aryan 22:24

The fact that in this day and age we're shifting from kind of like the fact the like awareness to deployment. So instead of, uh, everyone saying like, oh, like climate action's important now, and that's obviously very important. People are now working towards building like systems, like sensors and all these different types of things. And I've seen it around the world, like the ocean cleanup, that's a, that's a great example. They're building technologies that go into the ocean and, uh, they use like robotics to clean plastics out of the ocean and all different types of debris. That gives me hope, People doing small actions that could potentially lead to huge endeavors, gives me hope. Just really anything to do with applying kind of, engineering or all these different types of concepts to solving this problem really gives me hope. Just the deployment aspect.

John 23:12

Thanks for sharing all of the cool things that you have done and continue to do. Aryan.

Aryan 23:17

Yeah. Thank you.

John 23:18

Thank you dear listener and viewer. If you know of a young climate action figure we should talk with, please let us know via social media or at climateactionfigures@gmail.com. We will be back again, same time, same place to hear from another climate action figure next week. Until then,

Aryan 23:36

Go figures!