Next generation innovations take centre stage at IIT meet
“The world today will invest more vigorously in India. India’s talent, digital-first attitude, market size, emerging purchasing power and growing aspirations is a heady mix to take India forward at an unprecedented speed and scale. Our IITs should seize this opportunity,” Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
From drones that can carry upto 10 kg of weight to innovative devices for people with disabilities, affordable prosthetic limbs to smart vending carts, environment-friendly batteries to real time flood forecasting portal – these were among 80 research and development (R&D) innovations which were showcased at a fair collectively organised by 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) here on Friday.
Inaugurated by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the two-day event titled ‘IInvenTiv’ is the first ever all-IITs R&D showcase. It is being organised to mark 75 years of Independence, in line with the Centre’s Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav initiative.
In his inaugural speech, Pradhan stressed that technology will drive the next phase of growth and development with information technology and communications technology among the frontrunners.
“The world today will invest more vigorously in India. India’s talent, digital-first attitude, market size, emerging purchasing power and growing aspirations is a heady mix to take India forward at an unprecedented speed and scale. Our IITs should seize this opportunity,” he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the people what happens when technology-driven research commits itself to the service of the human race, he said.
Citing the development of Indian vaccines within a short period to stress that it not only benefitted Indians but millions of people around the world, he said: “It has all been possible because of brilliant minds like yours.” These are the signs of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, he noted.
The projects that were on display covered diverse themes such as defence and aerospace, healthcare, environment and sustainability, clean energy and renewables, manufacturing, communication technologies, robotics and sensors and semiconductors.
Among innovations showcased by IIT-Delhi were replacement of diesel generators with vanadium redox flow battery, 3D bioprinted skin disease models, smart public transport toolkit and continuous electrospinning machine.
“A prototype of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has been installed in IIT-Delhi for charging mobile gadgets as product validation in the real environment. A VRFB-based electric vehicle charging station is being developed for 2W/3W electric vehicles plying in IIT-Delhi. It can replace diesel generators for a clean and sustainable environment,” Anil Verma, a professor at chemical engineering department at IIT-Delhi, and innovator of the VRFP system project, said.
The institute also showcased technological innovation with social impact such as a ‘smartcane device’ to provide audio clues to visually-challenged persons and help them detect route number of buses, and ‘DotBook’ that is also known as India’s first braille laptop.
“The laptop provides line-by-line output of textual content in electrical Braille. It also has built-in applications for creating documents, web browsing, emailing, reading books and more,” Pulkit Sapra, an IIT-D alumni and a member of the team working on the startup ‘Assistech’ at the institute, said.
IIT-Kanpur’s startup ‘EndureAir’ that prepares drones was a major attraction at the event on Friday.
The startup has two types of drones – VIBHRAM and ORBIT. While VIBHRAM is for surveillance and security purposes, ORBIT can carry upto 10 kg of weight and can be used for logistic delivery, according to Abhishek, an associate professor at department of aerospace at the institute.
“This (ORBIT) can also be used to spray pesticides in the fields. It can fly upto two hours at a stretch,” he said.
A smart vending cart by Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG), which is centred in seven IITs – in Delhi, Mumbai, Madras, Guwahati, Roorkee, Kanpur and Kharagpur – also attracted many visitors.
The cart has various versions developed by the IITs. For instance, the one displayed at IIT-Bombay helps in reducing food wastage, provides better hygiene and increases the shelf life of food products by 48 hours, according to a poster pasted on the cart that was on display at the event.
The product is also supported by the ministry of panchayati raj and office of the principal scientific adviser of Government of India.
IIT-BHU, Varanasi, showcased an ‘Affordable Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand’. “This project mainly proposes an affordable and fully functional myoelectric prosthetic hand that will fulfil the basic needs of a transradial amputee with minimum number of training sessions,” Neeraj Sharma, an official from the institute, said.
Meanwhile, IIT-Kharagpur showcased ‘COVIRAP’, a device for affordable and rapid diagnostics of infectious diseases. Initially developed for Covid-19 testing, the device can now be used to diagnose any infectious disease.
“Being a platform technology, the device can be adapted to detecting any bacterial, viral or parasitic infection, simply by pre-programming the testing protocol in the portable thermal unit.This will emerge as a preferred substitute of common rapid tests that often compromise the detection accuracy. This will be ideal for implementation in Educational Institutions and other Community Centers for extensive disease screening and infection management at the grassroot level,” said professor Suman Chakrobarty from the institute.
The event brought over 300 representatives from industries, including startups, along with government and embassy officials and global IIT-alumni, according to a statement by the education ministry.
