South Asia’s deadly fog meets a student-led solution from Pakistan

By Akhtar Pathan

KARACHI, Pakistan (MNTV) — Across India and Pakistan, winter fog is a familiar and feared visitor. Flights are delayed, trains crawl, and highways become scenes of mass collisions. While governments focus on advisories and traffic control, a team of Pakistani students has come up with an unusual response — a device designed to harvest fog and use it to power roadside lights.

For most, fog is a seasonal menace. For four students at TABS College of Science’s girls section in Hyderabad, it became something else: an untapped source of energy.

In a city often described as peripheral to Pakistan’s main educational and technology centers, first-year students Dua Ijaz, Shifa Kamran, Fatima Faryal and Meezab decided to look beyond the hazard and into the science behind it. What if the moisture suspended in the air — blamed for accidents and economic disruption — could be harvested and converted into electricity?

That question led to Nebulavolt.

Seeing opportunity where others saw danger

The idea crystallized as the students followed news coverage of thick winter fog in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Reports of multi-vehicle crashes on highways caught their attention.

They had already resolved to explore alternative energy sources for a national entrepreneurship competition. The recurring images of fog-related accidents provided both urgency and direction.

Rather than focusing on removing fog — the standard public policy approach — the team chose to harness it.

Their concept: a device capable of absorbing fog from the atmosphere, reducing visibility hazards and converting captured moisture into usable electrical power.

Within 15 days, working with limited resources, they built a prototype.

How Nebulavolt works

Nebulavolt belongs to an emerging field known as fog-to-electricity or droplet-based energy harvesting — a frontier in renewable energy that blends physics with nanotechnology.

At its core, the device uses a hydrophilic mesh to capture microscopic water droplets suspended in fog. Once collected, the droplets are channeled into a conversion mechanism that employs triboelectric nanogenerators, a technology pioneered in 2012 by Chinese scientist Zhong Lin Wang.

Triboelectric nanogenerators produce electricity when two materials come into contact and separate, generating a charge from mechanical motion — including the impact of water droplets.

Originally developed to harvest tiny mechanical energies such as vibrations or raindrops, the technology has since been explored for broader environmental applications.

By adapting this principle, the Hyderabad students envisioned a system that could convert the kinetic energy of condensed fog droplets into electrical power.

The dual-purpose design sets Nebulavolt apart. As it captures moisture, it could also marginally reduce fog density in a localized area. The electricity generated could then power streetlights, traffic signals and roadside systems — improving visibility and potentially reducing accidents.

From classroom to national stage

The project earned first place in the ninth cycle of Enterprise Challenge Pakistan, the country’s largest entrepreneurship competition for students aged 14 to 18. The initiative is organized in partnership with King’s Trust International and SEED Ventures.

The national finals, hosted in Karachi and attended by senior British and Pakistani officials, marked a milestone for TABS College of Science — a relatively low-profile institution in Hyderabad.

For the students, the victory validated months of research and experimentation. For the college, it was a moment of transformation, elevating its profile in a town not typically associated with high-impact scientific innovation.

The numbers behind the vision

The initial prototype cost between 6,000 and 10,000 Pakistani rupees (equivalent to approx. $21 to $35) to build — a modest investment reflecting the team’s limited means.

Scaling up, however, would require far greater resources.

The students estimate that constructing a fully operational Nebulavolt unit would cost between 500,000 and 600,000 rupees ($1789 and $2147). A commercial-scale model would incorporate advanced environmental sensors, durable fog-absorbing mesh and a refined conversion mechanism.

According to their projections, a single full-scale unit could cover approximately one kilometer in dense fog and generate enough electricity to power between 11 and 28 streetlights.

They describe the system as low-maintenance, environmentally friendly and adaptable for future enhancements.

Sustainability and hybrid potential

Fog is seasonal and unpredictable — a reality the team readily acknowledges.

To address this limitation, they are exploring hybrid functionality that would allow Nebulavolt to operate in high-humidity conditions and potentially even in arid environments where atmospheric moisture is present in smaller quantities.

The students believe the device could support green entrepreneurship by producing clean energy without significant harmful byproducts. While fog reduction on a macro scale would require broader deployment, localized installations along highways or in accident-prone zones could combine safety benefits with renewable energy generation.

The concept remains in its early stages, but the team says ongoing research and development could improve efficiency and scalability over time.

Personal ambition, collective support

For Shifa Kamran, Nebulavolt represents the fulfillment of a childhood aspiration to become an inventor.

Both she and Ijaz emphasize that their inspiration stemmed from observing real-world problems. Fog was not an abstract idea; it was a visible, urgent safety issue affecting thousands of commuters.

Balancing academics with innovation required disciplined time management. The students credit their families for unwavering support, often adjusting household routines to give them space to work.

They also highlight the role of teachers and their project supervisor in guiding research, refining presentations and encouraging persistence.

A school built on inquiry

TABS School and College’s leadership describes its philosophy as focused on producing thinkers and innovators rather than merely high scorers.

Concept-based learning, inquiry-driven classrooms and project work are central to that approach. Students are encouraged to question assumptions, explore unconventional ideas and tackle practical challenges.

Extracurricular activities — including debates, public speaking and leadership programs — aim to build resilience and communication skills alongside academic achievement.

Abid Ali, the school’s director, says the goal is to prepare students who are academically strong, creatively bold and confident enough to thrive in competitive professional environments.

Nebulavolt, administrators say, is a product of that culture.

Competing globally from Pakistan

Moiz Jeelani, the students’ supervisor, believes Pakistani youth can compete on global platforms without leaving the country.

He urges aspiring innovators to embrace self-directed learning through free online resources, seek mentorship within local academic and industry circles, and focus on solving pressing domestic challenges in areas such as agriculture, health, energy and information technology.

Participation in international competitions and conferences, he says, can amplify local ideas on a global stage.

Infrastructure constraints may exist, but determination and curiosity can bridge gaps.

Lighting the way forward

Nebulavolt remains a prototype — a small device born in a classroom lab in Hyderabad. Yet its symbolic power extends beyond its circuitry.

In a nation where winter fog frequently brings highways to a standstill, four teenagers have demonstrated that innovation can emerge from unlikely places. Their work reframes a seasonal crisis as a renewable resource and challenges assumptions about where meaningful scientific ideas originate.

For the Nebulavolt team, the ambition is clear: refine the technology, secure funding and move from model to deployment.

More broadly, they hope their journey inspires other young Pakistanis — especially those outside major metropolitan centers — to believe that background does not limit possibility.

In the thickest mist, they suggest, there is light waiting to be harnessed.