Students of Sulochanadevi Singhania School in Thane were awarded the first prize at a state level science contest for school students. The four-member team was adjudged first for their project on an eco-friendly cement mixture to fill potholes. Heramb Tilak, a 16 years old along with classmates, Pushpendra Yadav, Vaishnavi Kokitkar and Niraja Ranadive, began working on the composite mixture. The cement solution uses eco-friendly materials and it has been tested at the Thane Municipal Corporation’s laboratory. "We found that the compressive strength of our composite cement was greater than that of the mortar. It was also an eco-friendly solution to the pothole problem," said Heramb Tilak. Another project from Singhania School – also placed in the top four – along with the cement composite project and two others represent the state at the National Children’s Science Congress to be held this month."Seeing how many potholes there are, we thought we should come up with a way of filling these so as to make roads smoother as well as prevent water-borne diseases from spreading through the pools of stagnant water," said Tilak.