Arunachalam Muruganantham: The sanitary napkin man:
Arunachalam Muruganantham, a workshop helper - from being rejected by the same women whose lives he wanted to change, designed, created, tested and implemented a sanitary napkin-making machine that operates on a small scale, now gearing up to create jobs for a million women.
The boy who created the thinking wheelchair:
Chivalrous Humanitarian Ideological Loiter Device. The
term may not mean much at first glance but the innovation it stands for,
has the power to empower millions of disabled people around the world.
CHILD is a multiple-utility based system that helps people
unable to walk, to move around independently. It consists of a motion
control based on Gesture, Strain, IFR Remote and Dual-tone
Multi-frequency signalling. A Haptic Arm and Tray has been attached to
help the visually impaired avoid obstacles while navigating. The system
is also RFID and password enabled to ensure user security.
The innovation is the result of one boy’s experience of
watching his father struggle to live a life of dignity while consigned
to the wheelchair. When Udhay Shankar saw his father, a cancer patient,
grappling everyday with this inability to be independent he knew he had
to do something about it. The experience shaped his entire approach to
innovation.
“The dependency on wheel chairs in India is on the rise,”
says the 20-year-old from Coimbatore. “The motto was to help physically
challenged people to be as independent as possible. Secondly, to ease
human effort and add a comfort factor to their daily lives.”
Udhay is currently pursuing his Bachelors in
Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineering at the PSG College of
Technology in Coimbatore and CHILD, which won the Grand Jury Award at
Innovation Jockeys this year is merely the beginning of his efforts at
empowering those he can.
“Currently my friends and I are trying to set up an NGO
called TRY (The Revolutionary Youth), which is aimed at teaching the
orphans and underprivileged children Robotics, MS Office, writing mails
and using the search engines,” he explains.
Apart from empathy, the quality that defines Udhay is
ambition. Armed with sound technical skills he doesn’t shy away from
taking on big projects. Works in the pipeline include an innovation
called AGRO which is aimed at reducing the transportation losses
incurred in the transportation of fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile,
DESTRO is meant to cater to ‘defence and security applications at
houses, industries, etc. “It has the ability to attack, detect obstacles
within 10m range (Using LASER) and navigate by itself with override
options. It can pick objects and carry them and finally attach the
target.” Udhay explains. Another one is SENSE which is about ‘home and
industry automation.’ The aim is ‘monitoring water, electricity and gas
consumption online and so online payment is made easy.’
So where does this appetite for innovation come from?
“The most important thing is to understand the pain of
others and take it up as your own. Believe that every problem has a
solution,” says the young engineer. “Spend some time thinking of the
possible ways to solve it. Analyze the merits and demerits. The scope of
any innovation revolves around cost, performance and utility. The
solution’s simplicity is its essence.”
Students fought against milk adulteration:
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)
made a shocking revelation in 2011. In a first-of-its kind survey on
milk adulteration the authority found that 70 percent of the milk in
India is contaminated. Most Indians are consuming detergent and other
contaminants along with milk without even realising it and consumers are
largely helpless. How do you tell whether the milk you’re drinking is
fit for consumption or not? For all you know you could be drinking
poison in the name of nutrition.
This horrified two students at IIT Bhubaneshwar enough to
do something about it. Pravir Singh Gupta and Partha Ghosh decided that
it was time one stopped relying on government authorities and found a
way to empower consumers instead. This led them to create Drink Pure - a
device that would allow consumers to detect impurities in milk for
themselves.
"Frequent reports of adulteration of milk with harmful
chemicals, associated health hazards and lack of government surveillance
for such incidents - inspired us to come up with the idea of Drink Pure
– a simple take-at-home test to check milk for adulteration," says
Pravir.
How Drink Pure works
Most home based methods to test adulteration check only
for water and are more often than not, time consuming. The tests to
detect chemical based adulteration use chemicals themselves and can only
test for a limited number of contaminants at a time. Each chemical
requires a different test and busy householders decide to forgo these
entirely to save on time. This is where Drink Pure comes in.
"Drink Pure is a handheld device that uses semiconductor
based sensors to detect adulteration in milk," explains Partha. "It does
not require any chemical reagents to detect adulteration."
Pravir chimes in with the philosophy that has led the two
of them to develop Drink Pure in the first place. "I strongly feel
innovators need to focus on empowering consumers," he says. "This is
because in developing countries consumers are more likely to be cheated
as producers take advantage of lax government agencies that fail to
prevent it."
However, the project has run into a familiar roadblock known to all budding inventors - shortage of funding.
"The design of the product is ready," says Pravir.
"However, currently we are trying to procure equipment to manufacture
sensors. Some equipment we have managed to get but the rest is pending.
Shortage of funding is the major challenge we are facing. We need an
industry collaboration to help us manufacture a prototype."
In their final year of B-tech at IIT Bhubaneshwar, the two
hope to see their project come to fruition in the next couple of years.
While, Pravir dreams of making it big as an entrepreneur, Partha wants
to become a scientist and this – their respective areas of expertise and
interests – they say is what makes them such a great innovating team.
The two 22-year-olds are currently working on a
'surveillance system for smart cities’ and have filed for a few patents
together. When asked will the partnership survive graduation, both
insist in unison "Of course!"
Helping the visually impaired get digital:
Who knew a trip to a blind school would have the potential of completely changing the future of blind technology. When 23 year old Rakshith
visited an institution for the blind in his city of Bangalore,he was
shocked at how difficult learning was for the visually impaired,
specially the beginners for whom each lesson was torturous.
“They had to punch holes in order to write in
Braille with the help of a sharp object. They told me it was sometimes
painful to keep punching holes at a fast rate,” he says. “It was then
that a few of my friends and I decided to develop a Braille pad to open
up the digital world to them.”
The team devised a way to convert text in
digital books to Braille with the help of what they now call a Universal
Digital Braille Book. Until now, learning for the visually impaired has
been limited to whatever books are available in Braille.They are
largely unable to access the vast amounts of data on the internet that
rest of us take for granted. The Digital Braille Book makes this
tremendous reserve of digital knowledge as easily available to them as
to anybody else. For the blind students that Rakshith shared his idea
with, his concept was the equivalent of an ‘open sesame’ into a world
where they could learn on an equal footing with their sighted
counterparts.
“Universal
Digital Braille Book is designed using the principles of embedded
systems. It converts any document on computer to Braille instantly,”
explains Rakshith.“The data is sent serially from the computer to the
micro-controller where it actuates a sequence of vibrators thus
impressing upon paper to form corresponding Braille letter of the
received English alphabet. This way any text document on the computer
can be converted into Braille text with ease.”
However,Rakshith and his friends have taken
the concept even further to create a Digital Braille Pad. This will
allow visually impaired students to take their exams without assistance.
Currently in most schools they depend on other students to write for
them while they dictate. The Digital Braille Pad would free them of this
necessity. The pad simply reverses what the Digital Braille Book does.
“The Digital Braille Pad uses a
micro-controller to enter Braille codes into the computer just as any
other normal keyboard,” explains an excited Rakshith.“This will then
convert the Braille code into English alphabets or any other language
depending upon the code conversion”. They have already developed a prototype for
both the Digital Braille Book and the pad and successfully tested each
of them on blind students. However Rakshith points out, “We are trying
to improve the design by reducing the size of the models and increasing
the number of cells in the Braille Book so that many letters can be
displayed simultaneously.”
Meanwhile, Rakshith continues to innovate
furiously in the field of assistive technology. Going beyond the
classroom he has come up ASHWA, an autonomous vehicle for the visually
impaired. And it’s not just the visually challenged he intends to help.
Rakshith and his friends are working to develop a device that converts
sign language into speech with the help of image processing. Other
projects include an Unmanned Fire-fighting Robot, an online health care
solutions provider, and a process that helps generate electricity from
traffic on roads.
Having completed his bachelors in Electronics
and Communication from RV College of Engineering, Bangalore, Rakshith
is currently employed as a software engineer in the research wing of a
multinational conglomerate. However the Nicola Tesla disciple intends to
return to his true calling pretty soon - a rebel and a social innovator
with an entire list of causes.
The students who took on car thieves:
You used them for shopping until now, but QR codes could soon help you in securing your vehicles.
At least that’s what Arun Balaji, Dhanraj. J and Dhanaraj.
S, collectively called the Beta Adroits, are trying to accomplish with
their innovative solution to on-campus security. “There were a number of cases in our college where our
college mates had their bikes stolen,” says Balaji. “It was during the
same period we were also extensively exposed to the brand new smartphone
technology and found out how it could be used to scan QR codes. It was
then that an idea dawned on us. Why not create sophisticated QR codes
and fix them on vehicles. They can be scanned using smartphones and also
webcams,” he adds.
The three, who are all pursuing their masters degree in
Computer Applications from Sona College of Technology, Salem, Tamil Nadu
have already completed 75 per cent of the source code and are almost
ready to implement the security system on their campus.
The reception to the idea has been tremendous with both
college professors and students eager to see their mechanism in action.
They soon plan on introducing the system in other college campuses
across Chennai. Indeed, if successful, their security system using QR
codes would not just effectively curb vehicle theft on college campuses,
it would also make screening vehicles easier in housing societies,
office campuses and parking lots. With the number of car thefts rising
every day the Beta Adroits Security System answers a very immediate
need.
Their ingeniously simple solution, they say is the product
of simply expanding one’s mental horizons and rethinking the way we use
existing technology. Are we using the available technology to its full
potential? The answer, they say, may surprise us. “The scope of other technologies can be increased as well.
There are lots of students thinking that way, who have come up with
similar innovations. We are constantly looking at how to innovatively
use what we have,” explains an excited Arun.
Automation is another thing that interests this group of
young innovators. Tired of getting into trouble every time they forget
their driving license or insurance papers, they are looking to
collectively come up with a system that will automate the verification
of vehicle documents. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention
and even innovation.
The three are currently working on various individual
projects as a part of their internships. 24 year old Arun Balaji is
working on a ‘Data Integration Hub’, while Dhanraj S is working to
create a ‘Developer portal’. And Dhanaraj J is helping a company create a
system to combat money laundering.However, each is aiming to use their
unique brand of innovation to get started on their own. Their approach can be condensed in their own words.
According to the Beta Adroits, “An innovator is someone who takes a
different perspective on things from others. He/she might attract
ridicule in the beginning but success is never out of reach."
The student who created a mobile classroom:
“A classroom is generally a box with 4 walls and a
blackboard on one side,” says budding architect Jayshil Patel, “I came
up with the whole idea of modifying the same box in a different version
making it modular and mobile”. The result is Baksha, a modular moveable
classroom that can be transported to remote places and villages devoid
of any educational infrastructure. Thus, bringing education literally to
the doorstep of disadvantaged communities.
Having been forced to go to boarding school because there
was no quality senior-secondary school nearby, Jayshil says he couldn't
help but think of those students who had absolutely no access to any
form of education and had to travel miles just to get to a classroom.
“Due to the sheer scale of the population in India, education is a
luxury not a right; especially for the poor and down trodden” he says. This made him rethink the whole concept of school and
classroom, and sparked off the idea for a moveable classroom that would
bring education to children, particularly in the rural areas, instead of
forcing them away from their homes. The concept of Baksha was thus,
born. While examples are rife, across the world, of mobile vans being
used to provide books and other educational materials to people on the
go, there are several unique features that set Jayshil's innovation
apart.
Although, it functions primarily as a classroom, Baksha’s
flexible nature allows it to be used for other purposes as well. “The
modular classroom with an area of 21 square metres is equipped with the
latest teaching techniques, storage space, modular furniture and public
utility services. As the furniture is modular it aligns itself with the
floor” Jayshil explains. “Fusing a few of the Baksha units together, it
can be utilized for performing various other activities. It can be
converted into a relief camp, clinic, polio booth centre, etc”
Besides being multi-purpose and versatile Baksha is also
environmentally friendly. Built using Medium-Density Fibreboard (MDF) it
uses solar panels for electricity and is economical in the long run. It
is also relatively easy to transport. Jayshil’s ‘box of life’ can
easily be attached to a truck, train or a helicopter depending on where
it needs to be transported.
He further adds, “The structure is transparent so it gives
an eye for natural light and ventilation. Sound-proofing materials are
also used. It can also be raised on stilts which protects it from rain.” However, despite the overwhelming positives, the
22-year-old graduate of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Institute of Technology
is finding it extremely difficult to get adequate resources for his
project. As a result he is yet to create a prototype. He is currently
looking at government and corporate backing to help get his idea off the
ground.
Innovation Jockey’s, he says has given a great platform
and the confidence to pursue other ideas and innovations. And he doesn’t
intend to stop. A conscientious architect he wants to innovate in the
field of sustainable buildings. “I am working on a concept home, which
would be the first Lead and Griha certified” says an excited Jayshil.
However, early challenges and hurdles have already made the 22 year old wise beyond his years. An innovator he says, like his idol Steve Jobs needs to have tremendous
belief in himself and his ideas in order to fully succeed. For that one
has to be willing to put up with the occasional failure.
