It’s a sizzling and dry day on the big campus of IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The temperature is so excessive that it’s changing into tough to stroll from one block to a different. Within the sizzling climate, I come throughout a gaggle of scholars who’re unperturbed by the warmth and are judiciously working inside an AC corridor. Their goal is to invent one thing helpful. All of them are younger inventors from completely different IITs, NITs and BITs from throughout the nation.
They’re right here for a six-week Invention Manufacturing unit summer time programme run by the Maker Bhavan Basis to foster inventive engineering abilities amongst India’s extraordinary STEM college students. The broader goal of the scholars is to get a first-hand really feel of inventing one thing helpful, develop a prototype after which file for a provisional patent in India in addition to the US. Via Invention Manufacturing unit’s earlier editions, 87 college students from 15 IITs have filed 44 patent disclosures in India and the US.
The scholars are stuffed with enthusiasm. Take the case of Priya Sharma and Prabhnoor Singh, each third yr mechanical engineering college students from IIT Jammu. After doing an evaluation, they discovered that majority of two-wheeler riders the world over have extreme accidents within the neck regardless of sporting helmets. This, in flip, impacts their spinal twine and again. “We try to invent a tool that may match with the helmet and act as a cushioning round their neck to be able to stop neck accidents for two-wheeler riders throughout highway accidents. We try to invent a product that can act as a cushioning round a rider’s neck to assist in decreasing the influence throughout accidents,” Sharma advised THE WEEK.
Equally, Anirvan Krishna, a pupil of Division of Electronics Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, and Pratham Vishwakarma, who’s pursuing mechanical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, wish to assist senior residents with their invention and are engaged on inventing an assistive gadget which will help monitor the vitals of senior residents and render them bodily assist throughout emergencies. “We’ve got finished thorough analysis and located that many of the senior residents above 70 years of age fall in the bathroom. It’s not on account of a fall however once they go for urinating their blood stress drops and on account of this they really feel dizzy and have a tendency to fall in the bathroom. A drop of their blood stress results in weak spot and illnesses. We really feel that our gadget will help in alerting them in case there’s a risk of a fall,” mentioned Krishna.
I additionally come throughout the group comprising Trishul from IIT Madras and Priyam Bhavsar from IIT Guwahati. Each discovered that consuming meals on the go is a problem for a lot of particularly those that are travelling and would not have correct seating facility. Therefore each of them are aiming to develop a storage bag which could be transformed right into a flat floor so that folks can eat on the go with out having to seek for a correct desk whereas travelling.
Ishika Raj from IIT Gandhinagar and Madhvi Dubey from IIT Kharagpur had been perturbed by the problems confronted by lactating moms in breastfeeding a toddler. That is particularly for working moms who can’t stay with their new child kids for a very long time. “Lots of the working locations would not have a fridge. So, we’re pondering that there ought to be a tool which could be hooked up to the bra and likewise can act as a storage gadget for milk,” mentioned Dubey.
Kunj Shah from NIT Surat and Manush Patel from NIT Trichy needed to resolve the problems referring to brick masons and their battle whereas layering the bricks. They felt that most of the masons have again issues as they need to bend to put bricks. This group’s goal is to develop a machine that may do the layering work in order that the masons’ work is made extra environment friendly and simple.
Arshita Mishra from NIT Rourkela and Jyothiraditya from IIT Kharagpur had been deeply involved with the issue of mattress sores with ailing sufferers who need to lie down on the mattress for an extended length. “We predict that it’s higher to forestall than to treatment and are taking a look at a tool that may assist in the detection of mattress sores even earlier than they type,” Mishra advised THE WEEK.
Curiously, the Invention Manufacturing unit programme originated within the US, and Professors Alan Wolf and Eric Lima, the founders of the Invention Manufacturing unit programme within the US, act as mentors, along with different educational consultants. The journey started in 2013 when Prof Wold was an performing dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Cooper Union in the USA. One of many alumnus of the engineering faculty gifted $100,000. “It was a discretionary present and being the dean, I used to be advised that I may spend it on something nevertheless it needed to do with innovation. Then I referred to as Prof Eric Lima and determined to determine a solution to spend this present. In a few hours we created the programme nearly as it’s finished immediately. The one that gave us this present was himself a really inventive individual. He was thrilled that the scholars may have the chance to invent issues and personal them themselves,” Wolf advised THE WEEK.
Wolf additional says that after the tip of their six-week programme, college students can file a provisional patent. “It’s not a full patent however is a one-year safety of their invention. Throughout this one yr, they will resolve whether or not they wish to pursue a full patent or not. A full patent is dear and time-consuming. A full patent permits you to sue individuals who infringe on you. Alternatively, the provisional patent lets you present your invention to corporations and buyers and simply because you have got filed the patent, it is rather laborious for them to steal it from you. Solely the total patent permits you to shield your invention utterly. Most of those provisional patents don’t do something however on the finish of the six weeks, I hear from college students that they’re pleased with their work they usually may do that once more. They will discover a important downside and may design an answer and will prototype it. It provides them the arrogance that they could be a serial inventor,” added Wolf.
He says that the programme has grown organically and when visitor evaluators come and see the programme, they are saying that they need this programme of their college, too. “It has occurred in two universities within the US particularly Syracuse and Cooper Union and now many IITs in India,” mentioned Wolf.
It’s Hemanth Kanakia – the Founding father of the Maker Bhavan Basis within the US – who introduced that programme to India and began with the primary version at IIT Bombay and IIT Gandhinagar in 2018. Kanakia, an alumnus from IIT Bombay, feels that the Indian schooling system is geared in direction of amassing information and many of the occasions it’s theoretical information. “As soon as I went overseas for larger research, I noticed, particularly at locations comparable to Stanford College, that they mixed a number of theoretical information with sensible stuff. This made them higher suited to be a greater engineer. I additionally heard from lots of people overseas that Indian college students are very sensible however they aren’t very ingenious,” mentioned Kanakia.
He defined that within the universities within the US, they be taught to be much more ingenious. “I got here throughout the 2 professors from Cooper Union Alan Wolf and Eric Lima, who had been operating an Invention Manufacturing unit course of their establishment within the US for a very long time. It sounded appropriate to what we’re doing right here in India. Therefore, we began enthusiastic about bringing them right here and operating a course in India for the primary time. Over a time period, we’re pondering of being unbiased of them. Proper from the start, we had the native college members concerned within the nation. Now, the native college is operating the course on their very own at completely different IITs.”
Kanakia says that as a substitute of giving concepts to the scholars, the goal is to assist them develop their very own innovations. He says that the Invention Manufacturing unit will not be an incubation or a startup facility, however it’s aimed toward instructing college students methods to be ingenious. The goal can also be to change into assured that they will do such a factor in a specific timeframe. Creating that confidence can go a great distance sooner or later.
He says that yearly because the programme started in India, he has seen many college students developing with many attention-grabbing concepts, and remaining prototypes being developed on account of their involvement on this programme. This, on the premise of patent disclosures each in India and within the US. “These are patent disclosures and the Maker Bhavan Basis pays for that. Lots of them have gone as much as develop the concept additional and industries have approached them to license the concepts additional. The individuality is that we would not have any monetary stake in no matter they do, not like an accelerator. We’re instructing them methods to go about their invention. Lots of the previous attendees have acknowledged that they’ve realized lots from the Invention Manufacturing unit programme.”
Kanakia additional says that at Maker Bhavan, they’re giving again to the nation that gave them the engineering schooling. “We normally don’t achieve something apart from giving again to the scholars. The goal is to inculcate a behavior of studying by doing issues,” he mentioned. Maker Bhavan Basis has a number of programmes and works with the highest establishments in India comparable to IIT Bombay and IIT Gandhinagar. We additionally work with non-public engineering faculties comparable to BITS Pilani. It began the Invention Manufacturing unit programme with IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Bombay and are having it at IIT Jammu this yr for the primary time.
I additionally get to satisfy the director of IIT Gandhinagar, who greets us at his vibrant workplace within the campus. He agrees that our schooling system proper from the varsity is essentially theory-driven or problem-solving pushed and isn’t thinking-oriented. “With the Invention Manufacturing unit, we goal to provide the scholars a chance in order that their creativeness and concepts could be put collectively right into a doable factor. Some concepts might succeed, some might not and even when they fail on this, there’s a big quantity of studying. If we have now programs the place individuals would possibly be taught by doing issues, the goal is to first do the issues, implement, construct one thing after which be taught the idea behind it and correlate the identical with the sensible elements. Most western universities, and the western world, are targeted on impact-driven studying. In a western strategy, the goal is to first construct one thing after which be taught on that, whereas, in India, we first be taught one thing after which construct on it. We, at IIT Gandhinagar, have a number of sensible elements and Invention Manufacturing unit is one instance. We even have a number of lab-oriented studying and the concept is to construct issues first and expertise the precise phenomenon first after which schooling,” Prof Rajat Moona, director of IIT Gandhinagar, advised THE WEEK.
We additionally get to satisfy Nithin George, affiliate professor at IIT Gandhinagar, who has been supervising the Invention Manufacturing unit because it began in 2018. He says that it isn’t an entrepreneurship programme, however a programme on patenting and instructing college students methods to invent. By being a part of this programme, college students have learnt the method of inventing; sooner or later, if one is interested by inventing one thing, they might know what’s the course of. We can’t measure the success of the Invention Manufacturing unit by seeing that the product is profitable or not, whether or not the product has been purchased by individuals or not. Broadly, it is a coaching programme for the scholars on methods to invent and methods to patent,” mentioned George.
He additional explains that there are circumstances, although—it can’t be a software program product and must be a {hardware} product, so one can’t simply develop an app. A {hardware} must be developed and a prototype must be there and work. “A pupil additionally must be taught and pitch one’s concept to a number of individuals together with those that have no idea concerning the product. All by means of the years, completely different merchandise have been invented by first yr and second yr BTech college students from completely different IITs, simply to know the method of invention and methods to file patents. Lots of them haven’t gone forward and scaled the product additional because the goal of those college students was simply to develop a prototype. The success can’t be measured on the truth that whether or not the product is out there or not. It’s not a product growth programme however a pupil coaching programme. The programme is exclusive as a result of it brings in individuals from completely different IITs to work collectively. This time, we even have NIT college students as effectively. The choice could be very robust and it isn’t a simple course of. This yr, we had round 200 functions from completely different institutes; 100 had been shortlisted, of which 40 had been waitlisted and 60 had been chosen. Submitting an software can also be a difficult course of, as one has to make a video and many others. Within the remaining choice, judges from throughout are invited – primarily individuals who have by no means interacted with any of the scholars,” defined George.
In the course of the programme, I additionally get to satisfy Suryash Patidar, an alumnus of IIT Gandhinagar, who was a part of the primary Invention Manufacturing unit in 2018. He says that it was a life-changing expertise for him. “This programme made me daring and assured as effectively. The best ability I acquired was statement, as I used to be in a position to observe the issue very minutely and resolve the issue,” His group’s invention was a cell moveable bathroom for bedridden sufferers, which had a wheel that helped within the motion of the bathroom. “Our statement was that majority of falls for aged sufferers had been within the lavatory. So, we designed it as a cell bathroom for hospitals, outdated age houses as they discover it tough to go to the bogs. We filed an Indian and a US patent for this invention. It was very cost-effective nevertheless it required altering the general system, so we couldn’t scale as much as our expectations. After I visited the Invention Manufacturing unit, it was like a pool of minds from completely different IITs and completely different course backgrounds. Once we received caught, they helped us and once they received caught, we helped them. They tried to criticise our designs and we additionally tried to counsel upon their designs,” mentioned Patidar.
He says that he’s at the moment pondering of incorporating robotics as a result of it additionally helps within the incorporation of design and manufacturing. “It’s in the back of my thoughts that I’ve to begin one thing by myself someday later. It helped me with my statement abilities. On this programme, we get only some weeks time to design one thing and I’ve realised that given the paucity of time we are likely to assume sooner and are available out with a greater consequence.”