Students’ innovation to the fore at VIT expo – The Hindu

The team of A. Sai Kiran, M. Srideekshitha, T. Sri Harsha, T. Revanth, M. Devendra and G. Neeraj Kumar from CSE, ECE and Mechanical Engineering branches of the VIT-AP University has been short-listed for the final round of ‘Engineering Clinics—An Innovative Expo’ organised by the management, in the ‘Freshers’ category.

Their joint project “Homework Writing Machine’ is designed to help student in drawing diagrams and to prepare academic content in their day-to-day schedule.

In the ‘Sophomores’ category, a project on ‘brain computer interfacing’ designed by G. Sumith, Suresh Kumar Nair, Ch. Sakshith Reddy, Arnav Panigrahi, Sudhendra, A. Tejeswara Rao and Athresh K from the CSE, Mechanical and ECE departments has made it to the final phase of the competition. The project is about a brain-controlled wheelchair for providing mobility to individuals who find it difficult to use a powered wheelchair due to impairments.

In the preliminary round, the participants were categorised as ‘Freshers’ and ‘Sophomores’. The ‘Freshers’ were asked to design an innovative project using Arduino, an open-source electronic prototyping platform, enabling users to create interactive electronic objects, while the latter had to focus on ‘system design’.

Of the total 360 working models submitted, the ones that stood out were selected for display at Friday’s exhibition. Besides top three projects in each of the two categories, two more categories of “Most contemporary’ and ‘Most useful/socially relevant’ projects were created.

Among ‘Freshers’, the second place went to a project that demonstrated how Arduino-based car-parking system can be created and third place to a ‘flood rescue hover boat. In the ‘Sophomores’ category, a ‘Home Hydroponic Farming’ project and ‘project umbra’ bagged second and third places. A power theft detection system was recognised as the ‘Most Socially Relevant’ project and a ‘robotic hand’ as most contemporary project.

A panel of jury comprising M.S. Subramanyam from TCS, Hyderabad, Chandrasekhar Cherukuri from Wipro, Hyderabad, Arunachalam Jayaraman from Virtusa, Chennai, and Vasudev Maduri from Hitachi, Hyderabad, assessed the projects.

Vice-Chancellor D. Subhakar said the idea was to create a platform for students to gain hands-on experience on the lessons they learned in the classroom. Registrar C.L.V. Sivakumar said after a presentation by the students on their respective projects, the jury members asked queries to ascertain their knowledge levels. He said the university would reimburse the cost incurred by the students on making these projects.