India Proud On These Young Peoples_Part 2

The boy who created a washable notebook:

When 21 year old engineering student Indrajeet Ghorpade saw waste paper bins at his college hostel overflowing with used notebooks at the end of every semester, he was horrified. If this was the waste generated by a single institution, he could only imagine the scenario at schools, colleges and universities across the country at the end of every academic cycle. Thousands of tonnes of paper wasted each year just on rough-work and calculations. Considering that India recycles only 26% of its paper,this amounted to shocking misuse of a non-renewable resource. Something needed to be done and fast.

The first step for Indrajeet, was admitting that despite technology providing us with paperless alternatives like laptops, tablets etc, the conventional paper notebook at least in the Indian context was here to stay. Although, access to technology is rapidly increasing, it remains out of reach for the poor student. Besides, writing and learning is still the most popular method of studying in India across the economic spectrum.
The question that kept doing the rounds in his mind was how did one come up with an environment-friendly alternative that was affordable and yet did not disrupt the preferred method of studying? At last it dawned upon him. A reusable notebook that uses washable synthetic sheets instead of paper. So simple.
"These sheets can be washed, dried,re-bound and used again,” says an enthusiastic Indrajeet. “Thus you end up saving electricity and trees that go into the manufacturing of the conventional paper notebooks as well as the money that goes into buying new books”.

"Since stationery can be very expensive," he says. "This is an attractive alternative for the students. One does not fill all the pages of a book in a day, so you don't have to wash it everyday. Most likely you'll only need to do it once a month and its as simple as doing your laundry.” When showcased at the Innovation Jockeys contest last year, the reusable notebook became an instant hit. Buoyed by the positive response generated by his product, its proud creator says it’s only a matter of time before the reusable notebook hits the market.

“I have presented my idea to few of the leading stationery manufactures and organizations that support eco-friendly innovations and have received a positive response. With efforts channeled in the right direction along with smart marketing strategies, we should be able to see the product being used in every household, school and college in near future.”

In his final year in engineering at the Vellore Institute of Technology, Indrajeet has already landed a cushy job with a prestigious internet company. However, he dreams of striking it big on his own someday. First on his agenda is creating an “educational Institution where teaching will happen in an unconventional way with a complete emphasis on gaining practical skills, encouraging creativity and innovation.” Other dream projects include, turning his house and eventually the entire neighbourhood into an eco-friendly zone. A beach-side café also happens to be on the list.

However, the die-hard fan of Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee insists that innovators today have a more difficult challenge ahead of them. Environmental sustainability must be a part of every solution. For him,a true trailblazer is one who can think diversely and “come up with a technique that is efficient, cost effective and supports sustainable development.” Much like the reusable notebook.

They made shopping easy:

Don’t you hate it when half your time is spent trying to locate products in the super market rather than purchasing them? 

Two students from Nagpur may have the solution.

Sudhanshu Shekhar and Tanmay Agrawal, both students at Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur have developed a mobile application for smart phones that automatically syncs your shopping list with the network of the mall. The program on the network server then locates each product from your list, in the mall and finds the shortest path to avail these products. This app even alerts you when a product that was previously out of stock is available or not.

“The project consists of two phases. Phase I is creating the shopping list on the handheld device (designed for Android and Windows based smartphones) through a unique user ID and password,” explains 25- year old Sudhanshu who’s currently pursuing his Masters in Computer Applications. “Phase II will have a pop-up on the screen as soon as the user logs on to the application. The pop- up will contain current offers at different stores. The manager can also manage the inventory simply by seeing the database stock list and getting a pop-up on the screen when the quantity of a product is below a certain a level.”

According to 21- year old Tanmay, who’s currently in his final year of studying Electronics Engineering at SRCOEM, the main purpose behind the innovation was  to develop retail businesses at superstores and malls in such a way that it both provided ‘a rich shopping experience’ to the consumers and generated superb profits for the retailers. The innovation called Smart Shop was among the shortlisted ten innovations for the Innovation Jockeys 2013 Awards.

When you talk to the two, you quickly realize that while they maybe a team, their approaches to innovation couldn’t be more different. Where Sudhanshu, the older of the two and obviously the dreamer, talks of revolutionizing the retail industry, Tanmay prefers to focus on convenience and practicality. Smart Shop is the result of this perfect marriage between ambition and a workman-like attitude.

According to Sudhanshu, “To be an innovator you must have an ability to think and to mould your dreams into reality.” Meanwhile, Tanmay who regards Pranav Mistry as the greatest innovator of our times, uses his example to tell us what he thinks ought to be the prime objective of any innovator. ‘His (Mistry’s) innovations make things simple and that is what matters.”



A helmet that saves lives:

 

Over 32,000 people died in motorcycle accidents last year in India. When three students from Manav Rachna College of Engineering in Faridabad looked deeper into the statistics, they were shocked to learn that difference between life and death in most cases was the time it took for medical help to arrive. Mayank Dawar, Chaitanya Chhabra and Mohit Bahl sat together and pondered over how an SOS for a motorist who lay critically injured possibly unconscious could be sent out as soon as possible. In general an ambulance is supposed to reach the site within 10 minutes, but the Indian average is about 18 minutes. A further delay struck as unconscionable to the three engineers.

What would emerge from this intensive brainstorming is an innovation called Smart Skull. “We were shocked to find out that the most of the patients were unable to get immediate health care after an accident because of which the fatality rate has been increasing,” explains Mayank. “The idea is to deploy a wireless device in the helmet of the rider that measures the impact on the head. The device is paired with the rider’s Smartphone (loaded with a cloud integrated application) that analyses the data from the device and informs the relatives, nearest hospital and emergency centers about the intensity and location of the trauma.” 

Smart Skull has a mobile application (for Android and Windows) that is connected to a sensor within the helmet via bluetooth that makes the call to ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers immediately from the driver’s phone after the motorist meets with an accident. Smart Skull beat out over 4000 entries to be among the 10 shortlisted innovations for the Innovation Jockeys finals this year.

The three 20-somethings from Delhi credit Technoplanet labs, a student initiated lab at their institution for providing a sound technical platform where they can convert their ideas into working innovations. Hesitant about revealing anything about projects they are currently working on, before filing for a patent, the three nonetheless hint at something big in the pipeline. 

So what does it take to keep coming up with new ideas and innovations? 
“A fresh mind, and peace”, is the heartening answer we’re given.

Indian student creates futuristic shopping trolley:

 

Tired of long queues at cash counters? Thanks to an engineering student from Bangalore, that may soon be history. “When I recently went to a supermarket to buy groceries, I had to stand in a long queue for billing, which resulted in an unpleasant shopping experience. Searching the products across the floor and remembering my shopping list was also a problem. I also realised that there was a tremendous possibility for In-store marketing and advertisements. KART was born as a solution to these,” explains KART creator Bhargav Sridhar.

KART, according to Bhargav is an intelligent shopping trolley designed to provide a seamless shopping experience by implementing an RFID reader, an Interactive Display System and a weighing console. The Display System provides an effective user interface that syncs shopping lists from the user’s phone, displays product information, offers and best-buys and even shows bill information. Product codes are scanned by the RFID reader and syncs them to the display system while the weighing console takes information for perishable products (fruits and vegetables).

Impressive? The jury at Innovation Jockeys 2013 thought so as well. KART won the Retail Category at the Innovation Jockeys Awards Night on 30th August, 2013. 21 year old Bhargav comes from a family of engineers and is currently in his final year at Visveswaraya Technological University, Bangalore studying Computer Science Engineering. 

“My father being a Mechanical Engineer and my mother a Telecommunications Engineer, I was inspired with machines and technology right from my childhood,” says Bhargav. “Innovation for me is like an adrenaline rush. The value it creates, the lives it affects are a source of immense satisfaction.” 

Apart from KART, he is working on ‘developing a search engine that produces Info-graphic and flow-diagrammed results for user queries.’

Photography is another passion of Bhargav’s. He shoots officially for Apex Racing, Bangalore and is also an accomplished table tennis player having represented his school at national level competitions. 
So what keeps him motivated? 

“I focus on developing solutions that ease or solve existing problems and when I succeed, the user satisfaction makes me happier and that is what I work for,” is the answer.