Tag: research and innovation

Get down to business, say IIT KGP Experts

A Market Opportunity for Indigenous Players – IIT Kharagpur Experts on Mobile App Ban. Director, Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari is affirmative about IIT Kharagpur’s role in filling this void through sponsored projects and startups

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India on June 29 witnessed an unprecedented action in the area of mobile applications. 59 mobile applications developed in China have been banned by MEITY, Govt. of India citing prejudicial activities to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. This move has been welcomed by several experts at IIT Kharagpur. While some are relieved with reduction in potential security threat, others view it as an opportunity for Indian applications to strengthen their market presence or even create space for start-ups for indigenous mobile applications. Director, Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari is even affirmative about IIT Kharagpur’s role in filling this void through sponsored projects and startups.

The Security Threat

Prof. Raja Datta, Head, G.S Sanyal School of Telecommunication remarked on the potential security threat from these applications.

“We have to be cautious about the software we are using on our computational devices. Even if we are not storing financial data, some of our computerized biometric information may be inadvertently stored in these applications due to general user interface design. To avoid any further damage regarding exposure to our important data, it is advisable that installation of such applications be avoided.”

He further recommended investigations of these applications under restricted use, to study the attributes and make certain of malware functions if any, and take necessary steps to remove possible security threats. 

Business Opportunity

Talking about the market which has been created, Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Dean, Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy expressed his confidence in Indian technologists and scientists to meet the strong demand for similar products.

“The ban has only created a supply imbalance in the market which will attract Indian startups to feel the void. Also our technological research has reached a level wherein designing such products indigenously should not be a challenge at all. Take for example the healthcare domain; the available innovations by Indian technologists in healthcare devices and analytics can be improvised further to develop healthcare apps of highest scientific and technological standard which can replace several foreign-bred mobile  applications,” he said.

He also emphasized on the need for talents from technical institutions to focus on technology enablers and collaborate with designers to develop social media applications.

Prof. Goutam Saha, Dean, IIT Kharagpur’s IP Law School, clarified on how the market can be penetrated as the concepts do not receive IP protection.

“A specific mobile app based game can be protected but not its concept or subject area. The way forward is to proactively work on user feedback and assess user needs to launch new products. The mass market products need to upgrade features continuously and be trendy with look and feel to capture popular imagination,” he said.

Could IIT Kharagpur play a key role in filling this void?

Director, Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari believes the start-up ecosystem at IIT Kharagpur’s Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park can lead the initiative through seed funding and incubation facility.

“We are contemplating on calling for submission of app development projects by students which we can sponsor. With the talent at institutes like IITs who power thes strongest corporations in the digital space, this is not only a certainty but not achieving this goal should come as a surprise.” 

He further opined on the necessity of hackathons at the national level engaging talents from technical institutions towards this end.

“Last year MHRD had successfully organized several hackathons in hardware, software, rural technology etc. We have proven track records in delivering efficient and economically viable technologies. Let us seize this opportunity.  The market has only been liberated, we can say, inward, this time,” signed off Prof. Tewari.

The Govt. of India too is encouraging premier technical institutions to take benefit of this opportunity and lead the way. Live Mint reported  on June 30, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, Hon’ble Minister, HRD while speaking on Atmanirbhar Bharat in his address for an academic address for IIT Madras urged all to accept the high challenge and rise to the occasion.

“Don’t let the opportunity go. This will take us forward in the path of growth, . . . We don’t need them…we have the vision to do it,” the minister said adding that when the challenges are high all must rise to the occasion,” he said.

What are students saying?

A section of students at IIT Kharagpur engaged in product designing and development are excited too. TYSS Santosh, UG representative had floated an informal assignment during the lockdown period to develop various applications related to COVID-19.

“Similar assignments can be conducted to encourage students to ideate new developments, he said as part of the co-curricular program. This can also be a real-life project based learning experience for students where we can witness the transition from lab to land,” he said.

The art of tinkering

Summer is always a busy time at the M.N. Faruqui Innovations Centre. Established in 2014, the Centre is named after former Deputy Director and former faculty, Dr M.N. Faruqui, and seed-funded by the Institute’s distinguished alumnus Mr Arjun Malhotra, was conceived as a place where fresh undergraduate students could work, chat, discuss, and get hands dirty in the mechanical workshop or the wet lab setups. Students, even first year students, are encouraged to bring a project idea, have it ratified by some faculty, mentors and experts and then just begin experimenting to heart’s glory.

Students at work

And they have, unfailingly. Prerit Gupta (2017/DD/CE) is one of the many who has worked at the Innovations Centre. Prerit used the facilities mostly in 2015-16. He was part of a three-member group working on ‘Autonomous Driving Guide’.

Prerit says, “We wanted to create a demo for cars – initially toy cars – through a combination of sonar and camera in order to give a 360 degree view to an autonomous vehicle so that it could gauge the distance of an obstacle. Most of the others work with LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser.”

Prof. Kumar (right) explaining a project

Prerit and his team mates, one drawn from Mechanical Engineering, the other from Electrical Engineering, did not complete their project. But that is not so important. He says, “For young students like us, it is very difficult to get funds. But we were very excited to get the opportunity to tinker around and at the same time get guidance from the professors. We had keys to the laboratory and could walk in any time.”

The Innovations Centre comprises a Design Facility and Tinkering Laboratory. While the Design Facility is used for brainstorming and meetings, the Tinkering Lab has elaborate conferencing tools, 3D printers, a mechanical workshop with fabrication machinery, electronics workbenches, PCB fabrication set-ups, and prototyping tools for embedded systems, among others.

Arjun Malhotra (right) interacting with students

The idea was to train students in trans-disciplinary areas at early stages of engineering studies and promote the culture of innovation among a wide cross section of students and faculty with support from its alumni and the industry.

Prof. C.S. Kumar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is in charge of the M.N.Faruqui Innovations Centre says, “The objective of this Centre was to provide tinkering facilities to students to motivate them to innovate through experimentation. Till date multiple student groups have sought funding from the Centre to develop innovative products in various domains.”

An interaction with Ravi Kant

Some of these domains are Systematic electric power distributor to be used in urban poles, variable range rheostat, micro scale eco pad to facilitate adhesion of objects to various types of surfaces, Energicycle which assists ride with stored potential energy from braking, Suitcase that can be hauled up a staircase, Arsenic filter, clay pot refrigerator etc. With some additional support facilitated by Shri Bijoy Chatterjee, a group is also developing an electric vehicle with its own energy efficient motor control and battery management system.

Prof. Kumar says, “During the past year, one of the projects, namely the Energicycle, has filed a patent. The Centre also supported fabrication of parts for student teams participating in the Smart India Hardware Hackathon in June 2019 for rural technologies using its 3D printers and a PCB router that were made available.”

MN Faruqui Innovations Centre

Anurag Goel, who will graduate from IIT Kharagpur in Instrumentation Engineering in 2019, used the MN Faruqui Innovations Centre, extensively for creating the prototype of the Energicycle. He worked with Hemant Kumar Chaudhury, a fifth year Dual Degree student of Biotechnology, on the project. The idea was proposed at the Open IIT Product Design contest in 2015. The team started work on the project in the 2016 summer. They stayed back during the vacation to work in the M.N. Faruqui Innovations Centre and eventually made the first prototype.

Anurag says, “We were greatly motivated by Prof. Kumar and first made CAD models which were tested. We then made a 3D printed model and next went to cycle shops in Kolkata to experiment the product. We made six different models of the cycle. One has been finalized and gone for patenting.”

The Centre was recently visited by Ravi Kant, IIT KGP alumnus
(BTech/MT/1966/NH) and former vice-chairman Tata Motors, who heard out students and reviewed the works in the facility during his campus visit in August 2018.

In addition, the Centre’s activities were reviewed by Arjun Malhotra during his annual visit at the time of Annual Alumni Meet in January 2019, and by Bijoy Chatterjee during his campus visit in February 2019. Talking about MNFIC, Mr Malhotra said, “Prof. Faruqui has been an inspiring figure. He would always pull me into some kind of a technical discussion to ensure that my ‘fundas’ were clear. For every problem he had a “holistic” approach to ensure that there was a solution that worked in the real world.

“To ensure that students learn, it is necessary to brainstorm together, to give them the support and the space so that they can freely ideate and freely experiment with those ideas.”