IIT Madras students submit creative and innovative solutions addressing tomorrow’s needs today.
Three-dimensional projection that can physically interact with a robot that goes underwater and completes pre-determined tasks on its own, a mobile unit on a bus that can detect potholes on Indian roads and a video projector that allows two movies to be projected to different audiences in the same cinema – these are some of the futuristic innovations by IIT Madras students that were recognised at the Samsung Innovation Awards 2013 held recently in the city.
The 2013 edition of the Samsung Innovation Awards was conducted by the Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation at IIT Madras. The Awards invited innovative projects from student teams advised by faculty members in the areas of Web Technology, Human Machine Interface (HMI), Embedded & Hardware System Design, Graphics & Visualisation, Audio/Visual Content Processing, Cloud Computing and Novel Product Design.
Speaking at the award function, Dr. Aloknath De, Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer, Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore said, “Samsung has a strong history of innovation, and at the Samsung Research Institute we pride ourselves on our ability to create cutting edge technology that goes into defining the future. We are therefore very keen to be a catalyst in encouraging research and inculcating the spirit of innovation among the student community. These Awards are a way for us to spot fresh ideas that have potential and assist in taking them to the next level. We are pleased to see the level of innovation and creativity among these IIT students; we had a delightful time vetting through and shortlisting entries.”
The awards were initiated three months ago and received overwhelming student participation. Seven entries made it to the finals after a thorough round of shortlisting by IIT Madras faculty. The winners were chosen at the final jury round based on their innovativeness, feasibility, usability, relevance and overall impact on masses. The jury comprised Dr. Aloknath De, Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer, Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore and Dr. L. S. Ganesh, Dean-Students, IIT Madras.
Dr. Mahesh Panchagnula, Faculty Advisor to the Centre for Innovation at IIT Madras said, “As an institution, we place tremendous importance on research and welcome any opportunity that encourages our students to use their knowledge to develop innovative solutions. Working with an R&D centre such as the Samsung Research Institute gives our students the added advantage of being able to tie industry needs to state-of-the-art research.”
The first prize was won by team “3D Tube” (Team members: C. Praneeth Kumar, Chiranjoy Chattopadhyay, Cheekati Yeswanth and Sake Sunil Kumar) for creating a new interface to manipulate digital information directly. Vineet Upadhyay won the second prize for his project “Facial Analytics” and the third prize was won by team “Incense” (Team members: Ashish Bajaj, Stephen Ipe Varghese, Rahul Dcunha and Karthik A), which is about electric field sensing. The top three winners received cash awards worth Rs. 100,000, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively. The rest of the finalists received Samsung products as consolation prizes.
Praneeth Kumar, team member 3D Tube said, “We are really excited and overwhelmed to be the Samsung Innovation Awards winners this year. This is a great boost to our interest in research and we look forward to working with the Samsung Research Institute to understand how we can take this further. We thank our professors at IIT Madras for their training, support and encouragement all along.”
The Samsung Innovation Awards seek to support and encourage young talent/ professionals who have incorporated innovative approaches, sought to improvise different systems and processes, developed indigenous products and services for fulfilling mass needs thereby transforming lives and creating sustainable solutions for the benefit of society at large.
