2022 Middle School Winners

Benjamin Kurian is a 6th grade student at Olentangy Liberty Middle School in Powell, Ohio. He heard about the World of 7 Billion contest from his gifted education teacher and was drawn to the population angle of the contest. “I knew that there would be about 10 billion people in the world by 2050,” he said. “I’m kind of concerned about feeding the world, and our current ways of doing that aren’t really efficient.”

For Benjamin, the most important thing when he was researching a solution was that it be self-sustaining, meaning that it is able to function and be maintained all on its own, without outside assistance. His solution of aquaponics does not require any maintenance, and also produces food without wasting water.

He found that the hardest part of the video process was finding research that was reliable. “Finding good articles and credible sources was not very easy with just a simple Google search,” he said.

Outside of videography, Benjamin loves experimenting with music production. He plays piano, violin, and drums, and loves seeing what he can create using his music editing software. He’s even won first prize in the Instrumental category of the International Indian Icon competition in 2020, and hopes to continue perfecting his music production skills in the future.