Month: February 2023

Young Innovators Programme (YIP)  2022 conducted by IIT Kharagpur

Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turns into an innovation. Today it is not about how creative, how economical or how formative your idea is, it is about the thought and purpose of making an idea happen. We call India a diversified country, where solutions are evaluated based on the problems related to our socio-economic dynamism. As the nation with the youngest population, our GenZ also known as the Millennials, bring out fresh ideas to our age old problems in their unique way of applying problem solving techniques to the growing hazards of a  growing complicated world. With the intent of providing a podium to these profound young minds, IIT Kharagpur organized a Global Science & Technology Competition empowering greenhorns to solve real-life challenges through innovation. Nurturing and developing the young minds with a passion for Science and Innovation, IIT Kharagpur launched the Young Innovators Program (YIP) 2022 on 5th September 2022. Nearly 500+ schools across India, Saudi Arabia, USA participated in the first round of YIP 2022 on the lines to conceptualize solutions on Affordable Technologies, Health & Hygiene, SMART Technologies, Crisis Management, Energy Convergence, Pollution Control, Environment Conservation, Readymade Product Utilities, Economic Inclusions and Sustainable Future.

32 teams were chosen from more than 1400 participants from different national and international schools for the second round of the 4th edition of the Young Innovators Program (YIP) 2022 which has been successfully conducted by Branding and Relations Cell of IIT Kharagpur from 20th to 22nd January 2023. Out of 32, 12 teams have advanced to the third round, and 5 teams were declared as the YIP 2022 winners. The audience was in it for a treat to watch so many outstanding projects, creative ideas, and analytical thinking from the youngsters throughout the event. The young innovators were truly inspirational as Future World Changers. The programm helps to promote a culture of innovation among students in science and technology at a very early stage of their academic journey. The competition aims to recognize the creative ability of students and ignite the innovation in their minds to work upon some of the really interesting real-world problems.

When the soft breeze of January winters encapsulated the entire campus, the morning campus tour for the students became a memorable journey. One of the students excitedly said, “It feels like an hill station with the big-big trees.” As soon as the IIT bus rolled out, the children enjoyed the popular spots of IIT Kharagpur with candid photos along with visit to various departments, halls of residence, student activity centres, TSG, sports stadiums,Nehru Museum, hijli jail etc. The enthusiasm among the students to visit the largest IIT campus in India with 2100 acres was impressive. Those sparkling eyes were mesmerized with the beauty of a green laden campus which acts like a cocoon to nurture the best minds in the country weaving ideas, dreams and a world creating opportunities. The young minds were awestruck to see the Nehru Museum and the gallery of the Indian Knowledge System. One of the student exclaimed in astonishment, said, “IIT Kharagpur has own their Museum as well?” to which one our student representative, Abhinil Kumar replied , “Yes and it also has a jail where freedom fighters were punished by the then British Government,” which stirred the curiosity among all the students to see the famous Hijli Jail of IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur stated, “India is the country of the youth where constant inventions from the remotest places, has the capability to address the challenges that the society faces today. The youth of this country are the inheritors of the Aspirational India who will take this country way forward on the path of Atmanirbhar Bharat. I invite everyone to participate in this programme to promote the spirit of creation, innovation and inclusion. Students will also get the opportunity to interact with distinguished professors and experience the first, largest, and most dynamic campus of IIT Kharagpur.”

Each team had either 2 or 3 students from the same school and was judged on the basis of ideation, research, feasibility, cost of construction, portability, authentication and originality. Round 1 consisted of an online submission of a detailed report explaining the working of their Model/Idea on the chosen theme. Results for Round 1 was released on the IIT Kharagpur website. ‘Technological adherence to Agro-Culture’ was the most favoured subject expertise chosen by the young innovators at IIT Kharagpur’s Young Innovators Program 2022. Providing solutions to the worldly conflicts threatening basic survival needs to create a more sustainable world, the teams and their supervisors showed cognitive and analytical applications to basic problems which the world fails to address.

Anjali Gera Roy, PIC, Branding & Relations remarked, “The Young Innovators Programme was launched to tap the talent of budding scientists and technologists and nurture them so that they can contribute to new India’s self-sustenance goals.  The young participants’ grasp of complex scientific concepts, out of the box thinking and translation of abstract ideas into concrete, usable technologies was astounding. Selecting the best 5 projects out of all 32 teams qualifying for the final round proved to be a daunting task for the judges as they were all exceptional. The enthusiasm, energy and enterprise of the participants over the three-day event was palpable and rubbed off on all of us.  Catch them young I would say, if you want to find dynamic and innovative solutions for pressing contemporary problems and build a new India.”

Team “XYLEM” from Bhartiyam International School, with project “AGROBOT,” was the winner of the Yong Innovators Programme (YIP)  2022. AGROBOT is a robotic drip irrigation system that transports water through a feed pipe. The primary goal of this device is maneuvering the vehicle towards the plants to supply water rather than utilizing expensive pipelines. This initiative aims to reduce water waste and provide water where it is lacking. It is possible to transform this concept into a large-scale prototype, which would be very beneficial to the farmers and will be an economical purchase rather than laying strips of pipelines that requires regular maintenance. 

Team Pure Power winning the 1st Runner-up Position

Eliminating chemical pollutants from wastewater so that it can be reused while producing electricity from it stood second position in YIP 2022. The purpose of this project aimed towards a sustainable future and to inculcate indigenous mechanism for treating the wastewater. “Pure Power” from Ridge Valley School represented this concept under the topic, “Sustainable Hydroelectric Plant for Independent Establishment.” Hydroelctric plant using wastewater is one of the process to treat wastewater that cannot be used otherwise and is a very good implementation towards health and hygiene.

Team AGRICRAFT winning the Third Position

Team “AGRICRAFT” from WWA Cossipore English School, with the project “Vertical Farming,” won the third position in YIP 2022. This project aims to use extensive vertical racking to grow crops on multiple levels to optimize space and manage all the resources and conditions needed for farming. The autonomous and economical irrigation system based on soil moisture content was the major goal of this project. Vertical Farming grasped the attention of many with installation of crop production for weather balance, construction in any areas ranging from infertile lands to highly developed areas encouraging food production. This process helps in the requisite flow of water as per needs and this also helps in recycling of water along with rain water harvesting system. For the construction, moisture sensors have been used in each level with sliders which can be moved to change the direction of the moisture sensor so that variety of water could be grown easily. The water required for the different stages of crop could be controlled through this system. For the circuit design, simply relay mechanism have been used.

Team AGNIMAA winning the Fourth Position

Team “AGNIMAA – The Fuel Saver” from Sagar Public School in Gandhi Nagar, Bhopal, won the fourth prize with their project, “Utilization of heat energy via LPG.” This project aims to maximize the utility of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG). They employed the physics concepts of conduction and convention, which allow heat from one burner to be transported to another while also allowing us to use the excess heat to keep food warm or cook it over a low flame. It is perfect example of conventional form of clean energy which can burn easily and can be transported easily being sensitive to environmental degradation.

Team ALSET winning the Fifth Position

Team “ALSET” from Sanskriti The Gurukul School, with the project “ECORAGE,” is the fifth winner. The project’s primary goal is to identify various waste types so that they can be easily recycled. This is a practical problem-solving strategy because it harms us when recyclable and non-recyclable waste are burned in combination in the factories. Ecorage can segregate wastes like metal, organic, and other types by using various sorts of sensors.

  

As a result of population explosion which is ever accelerating, intensify the pressure on food production. This, in turn, leads to higher food insecurity, more greenhouse gas emissions, and large-scale environmental degradation. Food production, therefore, needs to adapt to accommodate the growing population and a changing climate.

The interaction of the students with IIT professors and other subject matter experts gave them the window needed to let in ideas flow in in amalgamation of technological pursuits. Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Former Dean R&D; Prof. Rintu Banerjee; HOD, Agricultural & Food Engineering; Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, Dean Outreach & Alumni Affairs; Prof. Debashish Chakravarti, Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs and Prof. Surjya Kanta Pal, Chairperson, Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology and others shared their experiences with the participating teams sand guided them towards a technology driven world that awaits for their innovative ideas and technological gambits.

Each of the five winning ideas had a clear objective and primarily focuses on a problem that exists in real life. “The concepts that these young students came up with are just unique and extraordinary. Congratulations to all members of the winning team and also to all the teams that took the initiative to participate in the pargramme. We wish all of them the very best for their future and are eager to see all these projects become a industry ready,” said Student Volunteer Abhinil Kumar of the Branding and Relations Cell, IIT Kharagpur.

On the context of G20 presidency to establish India as the Vishwaguru, when these ideas will be implemented on a broader scale of commercialization and meets industry needs in the future markets, they will have a major impact on our economic solutions making India Atmanirbhar and give the younger minds of the country the confidence to build technology for the world while recognizing the potential benefits of technical education along with a holistic development. 

By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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