What began as an attempt to solve problems on his family’s farm has earned 22-year-old Adarsh Singh a place among AKTU’s top innovators. Singh’s offline AI platform that detects crop diseases was one of five student-led startups honoured at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University’s (AKTU) convocation on Tuesday for developing technology-driven solutions in agriculture, defence, healthcare and education.
The Student Startup Awards, instituted by the AKTU Innovation Hub, recognised innovations with commercial potential and social impact across sectors.
For Adarsh, a BTech computer science graduate from Buddha Institute of Technology, Gorakhpur, the idea for Krishi Drishti came after witnessing crop losses in his village.
“We have farms in the village and I saw the struggles firsthand. My father pointed out how late diagnosis destroys everything. Around 25% to 30% of crops are ruined because farmers don’t know what disease has hit until it’s too late,” Adarsh said.
He and co-founder Aniket Vishwakarma, 23, developed an AI-powered platform that analyses crop health from a smartphone photograph and recommends treatment. The application works entirely offline, allowing farmers to use it even in areas without internet access.
The Deep-Tech Award went to Avi Mittal, 22, and Ankur Devnath, 23, of Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad, for developing an indigenous autonomous drone platform.
{{/usCountry}}The Deep-Tech Award went to Avi Mittal, 22, and Ankur Devnath, 23, of Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad, for developing an indigenous autonomous drone platform.
{{/usCountry}}“We started working on the idea in 2022 during a college competition and are now focused on achieving Level-5 autonomy by removing the human operator from the loop,” Avi said.
The Sustainable and Green Energy Award was presented to Aman Kumar, 20, a fourth-year electrical engineering student at Rajkiya Engineering College, Banda, for developing Reflexo Active Max Insole, which combines Ayurvedic Marma concepts and foot reflexology to help reduce muscle and plantar pain.
The Tech Innovation Award went to Sonu Bhagat of Inderprastha Engineering College for DermaShudhi, an AI-powered device that diagnoses skin conditions using models trained for Indian skin tones.
The Women-led Student Startup Award was won by Irtiqua Rehman Ansari, 20, and Yash Tomar, 21, from Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology for developing an augmented and virtual reality platform that enables schools with limited resources to conduct virtual science experiments.