High school students Vidushee and Shravya from Mallya Aditi International School in India have won first place at the global finals of Monash University’s Change It Challenge in Melbourne.
The duo represented team Reviv3D, comprising Vidushee, Shravya and a third member Shloka who was unable to attend the final. The young innovators tackled a critical healthcare issue in India, where 23,000 amputations are recorded every year and most patients never receive a prosthetic limb due to prohibitive costs. The students developed a solution that converts plastic waste into affordable, high-quality prosthetics. By combining bagasse – the dry, pulpy fibrous material remaining after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice – and basalt from stone crushing with recycled plastics, they created a high-performance composite material that is stronger than many fiberglass alternatives, drastically cheaper, and fully recyclable.
Vidushee and Shravya shared how the competition empowered them to take their vision further.
“Taking out first place in the Change It Challenge was really exciting and rewarding for our team,” they said. “What started as an idea gave us the chance to learn from Monash academics, gain new insights and think about how our project could help make healthcare more affordable. Throughout the competition, we developed our research, communication and teamwork skills, and built confidence in sharing our ideas with others. The experience has inspired us to keep exploring ways we can use our ideas to make a positive difference.”
Monash University is the university of the Indo-Pacific, and the Change It Challenge is the institution’s premier engagement activity with high school students across the region. It provides a competitive forum for young minds to hone essential skills in leadership, teamwork, and entrepreneurship by presenting actionable solutions to shared global challenges in front of expert judging panels.
Sunny Yang, Monash’s Vice President (Growth and International) opened the event by reflecting on how a quality education can harness the talent and hard work of young people to deliver genuine impact.
“The Change It Challenge highlights the extraordinary potential of young leaders to address pressing real-world issues through innovation and enterprise,” she said. “Welcoming bright students from across the world to our Melbourne campuses for this event reflects Monash’s commitment to building a diverse global student community and encouraging international collaboration that delivers positive local impact.”
Lead judge Amy Gledden, Executive Director of Student Recruitment at Monash University, praised the remarkable standard of competition among this year’s finalists.
“The quality, rigour, and passion demonstrated in the presentations this year were world-class,” she said. “Team Reviv3D stood out for their exceptional problem-solving abilities and scientific ingenuity. Vidushee and Shravya showed a deep understanding of human-centered design, presenting a solution that balances technical innovation with genuine social impact, and embodying the exact qualities of leadership and vision we champion at Monash.”
As part of their visit to Melbourne, the team participated in immersive academic sessions, toured state-of-the-art facilities at Monash University’s Clayton and Caulfield campuses, and engaged directly with researchers.
Ranked 31st in the prestigious QS World University Rankings 2027 – its strongest performance to date after accelerating 29 places over the preceding decade – Monash continues to build deep academic, corporate, and community networks across the subcontinent.
Its international campus network spans Australia,India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Italy, providing students with unparalleled study mobility and immersive research and education opportunities. In 2025, over 4,300 Indian students were enrolled across the Monash campus network, while fostering reciprocal global understanding through its own student cohort; more than 1250 Monash students have travelled to India under the University’s flagship Global Immersion Guarantee since 2022.
Supported by a 2600-strong alumni network living and working in India, the University’s footprint extends from classrooms to corporate boardrooms.