CONTENTS · INNOVATION AT IIT KGP I nnovation is an important buzzword these days in the field of science, engineering and techno-management. At IIT KGP, the fore-runner in the IIT

MESSAGE FROMDIRECTOR & DEAN

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HELPING STUDENTS TOTINKER AND INNOVATE

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THE ‘TOP INDIAN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION FOR PATENTS’

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ARE YOU FIT TO FLY?

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A MOBILE APP TO BOOSTURBAN INCOMES

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A FEW MORE MILESTONES ALONG THE WAY

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A BIKE THAT GOESAROUND ON ITS OWN

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A NEW ART OF LIVING WITHSMART HOME TECHNOLOGY

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CONTENTS

THE PROMISEOF A NEW BREAKTHROUGH

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PROMOTING INNOVATION AT IIT KGP

I nnovation is an important buzzword these days in the field of science, engineering and techno-management. At IIT KGP, the fore-runner in the IIT system, we believe that the highest standards of excellence

in fundamental and applied research can be achieved only when learning and innovation complement each other. It is in line with this philosophy that we have undertaken several initiatives, leading to the Institute being recognized today as a key hub of innovative technology development.

Innovation-oriented R&D has a powerful impact not only on the research credentials of an institute but also on the career trajectory of students and their future work. It is of utmost importance, therefore, to promote a culture of innovation amongst the young minds of the country, the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. For this purpose we have launched the M N Faruqui Innovation Centre this year, where students can explore their ideas and conduct innovative research right from their first year of study.

I congratulate the Institutional Development team on the launch of this publication, IIT KGP Innovator, which will shed light on the path that we have traversed so far, and will continue to take, in our pursuit of innovation in all the fields that we touch. I hope this will provide a fillip to the drive of innovation within the Institute.

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

It is with great pleasure and pride that I introduce the KGP Innovator to you. It is not just another

publication talking about the work that IIT Kharagpur has done, but also a reflection of its current thrust and ideology.

At one level, Innovator brings you reports on the recent steps taken by IIT KGP to foster and nurture a culture of innovation as well as the significant innovation-related achievements of several individuals and groups that form the wider KGP community. Indeed, the recognition and awards that have come to the Institute over the past couple of years are notable in their regularity and frequency.

However, at a broader and more holistic level, this magazine sheds

light on the overall direction of the Institute in the recent past, in its quest for undisputed excellence and academic leadership. Such a stature as IIT KGP aims to attain can only be achieved in an atmosphere where learning and innovation complement each other successfully, leading to novel and enhanced outcomes. We have covered significant ground in that respect as this introductory edition will show.

As we continue to surpass ourselves, setting increasingly higher bars for innovation, this publication from the Institutional Development team will highlight and document the major milestones along our journey to the future.

Prof. Partha Pratim ChakrabartiDirector, IIT Kharagpur

Prof. Siddhartha MukhopadhyayDean, Alumni Affairs & International Relations

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR

NEWS SPOTLIGHT

IIT KHARAGPUR THE ‘TOP INDIAN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION FOR PATENTS’

O n April 26, 2016, at a function in Delhi, jointly organised by the Indian Intellectual Property Office and Confederation of Indian Industries to mark World Intellectual Property

Day, IIT Kharagpur received the National Intellectual Property Award conferred by the Indian Intellectual Property Office.

The award was in the category of ‘Top Indian Academic Institution for Patents’. Dr Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director of IIT Kharagpur received the award from Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.”Our efforts around

the ‘100 patents drive’ are now giving results,” said the Director, congratulating the entire team.

Over the recent years, IIT Kharagpur has won several accolades, individual and group awards and been honoured for being at the forefront of innovation in research. The National IP Award conferred by the Indian Intellectual Property Office is just one more acknowledgement of the thrust on invention and innovative research at the Institute.

The Indian Intellectual property office confers national

intellectual property awards on outstanding innovators,

organisations and companies in the fields of patents, designs, trademarks, and geographical

indications on the occasion of World IP Day every year.

The National IP Award carries an amount of Rs 1,00,000, a

citation and a memento.

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KGP INNOVATOR CAUGHT UP WITH DR GOUTAM SAHA, PROFESSOR IN-CHARGE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AT IIT KHARAGPUR TO HEAR HIS VIEWS ON WHAT MAKES THIS POSSIBLE:

IIT Kharagpur is now officially the ‘Top Indian Academic Institution for Patents;’ what factors

make it such a hotbed for innovation and invention?If you look at the flurry of awards that have come to our faculty members, students and research scholars, these in themselves speak volumes of the thriving culture of innovation at our Institute. The institute had the maximum number of winners in the recent edition of the Gandhian Young Technology Innovation Awards. The results of the 2016 DST-Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme have just been published and as an institute, we have again emerged at the top.

Having said that, there is a lot of sustained, active efforts that are directed towards giving a thrust to invention and intellectual property creation. Speaking of the National IP award in particular, it is relevant to mention that IIT Kharagpur has instituted an IP-portal based submission for invention disclosures. This follows a strict internal evaluation process along the same lines as followed in the Indian Patent Office, which also ensures that we have zero rejection of the patents filed.

Apart from that, we have various workshops and drives to inform our researchers and inventors about good IP practices. We have also created a lot of readily available resources on online platforms, social media channels etc. There is thus a steady, continuing engagement and dialogue on invention and IP. We have been trying to highlight the success stories through blogs and other channels, so that there is an aspirational value attached to this in the minds of our young students and innovators.

How do you see the future of innovation in the Institute and what would be crucial to achieving that?

An institute of the class and calibre of IIT Kharagpur will always be expected to be at the forefront of innovation, not just nationally but globally as well. However, the most important trap to avoid now is that of complacency.

Over the last few years, we have made great strides in fostering an ambience and a culture of innovation, and the awards and recognition put a stamp on that. The greatest challenge at this point will be to refrain from either overplaying or underplaying what we do and what we have achieved.

Innovation is a mix of invention and its marketability and in the long run striking the right balance in a sustained way is important. The three important aspects of patentability, namely novelty, non-obviousness and industrial use, need to be in front of us as researchers in the formulation stage of defining a problem statement. We must not lose time in securing our intellectual property and then work hard to market the same.

One of the things that will be crucial for us is supporting and highlighting the outstanding, but often less known, research work of our postgraduate and PhD scholars who are the mainstay of our research laboratories. That, combined with the zeal and drive of our undergrad super-achievers, will surely keep us on the upward trajectory of innovation.

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HELPING STUDENTS TO TINKER AND INNOVATE

I thought it would be fitting that in a campus that is located in a part of the country that has not just led the country in art and culture but in the sciences, we should also lead the country in thought and innovation. And on that campus we had a Professor who was known to get things done, who helped students to tinker and make things and encouraged them to imagine and believe that their dreams could become reality.

T he quest for innovation in any field is rarely successful without the freedom to explore, experiment and take risks. In cognizance of the fact, the Indian Institute of Technology

at Kharagpur has come up with the M N Faruqui Innovation Centre (MNFIC), a space where students are encouraged to invent, innovate, design, fabricate or even merely tinker with something they always wanted to work on.

Set up with funding support from a distinguished alumnus, Mr. Arjun Malhotra, it is named after an iconic professor M N Faruqui who was known for his encouragement to students to freely explore ideas in their areas of interest. Mr Malhotra remembers Professor M N Faruqui as a teacher in the Department

of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

“I was surprised at how he always wanted to do something a little different, with some combination of hardware and software, and he always had his students and me experimenting. I remember using the National Instruments AT form factor card in the Apollo 3000 workstation to set up a lab network, and laying a fibre optic cable and modem link between two Apollo ring networks in the ECE and Mechanical Engineering Departments,” he recalls fondly.

On his various visits to the Institute, Mr Malhotra saw Professor Faruqui personally funding purchases of components for students to make robots etc.

The MNFIC, as it is popularly referred to on campus, is an innovation centre, a design centre, a hobby workshop, a tinkering lab, an idea-testing lab, all rolled into one. It was inaugurated on January 16, 2016 during the Annual Alumni Meet of the Institute.


M N FARUQUI INNOVATION CENTRE

Arjun MalhotraDistinguished alumnus, IIT Kharagpur

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The alumnus reminisces:“Sometimes, he would request me to fund some small amounts that could help students in some of their innovative endeavours during their spare time. I thought it would be fitting that in a campus that is located in a part of the country that has not just led the country in art and culture but in the sciences, we should also lead the country in thought and innovation. And on that campus we had a Professor who was known to get things done, who helped students to tinker and make things and encouraged them to imagine and believe that their dreams could become reality.”

Student Innovation Projects initiated at the MNFIC

Systematic Distributor: A novel electric pole connection systemEcoPad: A multi- surface any-angle stick-on support Miniature Rheostat: A very wide range variable rheostat with high precisionAutomated driving guide: For safe driving in vehiclesBhumi: For soil testingUnbane Pane: For energy efficient windowsOmni Reach: An omni purpose vehicle support system Booster the energicicle: An energy recovery system in human powered vehiclesAn intelligent traffic control solutionAn intelligent street lamp

That thought is what has made the MNFIC a reality today. The Centre presently envisages three modes of innovation projects, namely Student-initiated innovation, Faculty-initiated innovation and Alumni/Industry-initiated innovation.

The first, namely Student-initiated innovative projects would be screened, selected and reviewed by faculty and industry. The students could receive internship and scholarship support and even gain academic credits for the same.

The Faculty-initiated innovative projects would invite bids from student groups. The final award would be in consultation with sponsors through the office of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC). There, too, they will have options for scholarships.

Alumni/Industry-initiated innovative projects would receive bids from student and faculty teams and be administered through the SRIC Office. The final awardees could receive internship support from the alumni/corporate entity floating the projects.

During the summer break of 2016, the Centre encouraged 1st and 2nd year student groups to come up with innovative project ideas and helped them get these implemented. The centre is also facilitating corporate-supported challenge projects for students, the first one being on energy access and innovation supported by SELCO Foundation.

An academic support program is also being developed through the centre so that many more students participate and get involved in product-oriented innovation while studying at IIT Kharagpur. In this mode, several faculty across multiple departments have come forward to support innovation projects involving students from all academic years.

The Director of IIT Kharagpur has also encouraged the concept of ‘Directors’ Challenge Innovation Projects’ for students through the centre. It is expected that this initiative will lead to many students and faculty exercising their creative and innovation acumen in developing new products for the benefit of all.

“Our mission is to instil and foster an overall culture of innovation among the academic and research community on campus, so that “Make in India” becomes a reality in IIT Kharagpur,” says Professor C S Kumar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is also Professor-in-Charge at the MNFIC.

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ARE YOU FIT TO FLY?

F atigue is an important issue of concern for aircraft pilots. A high level of fatigue may well result in accidents, leading to loss of precious lives and resources. Hence, detection of the level of fatigue just before a flight can prevent a possible accident. Evidently, this problem needs to be seriously addressed.

Fatigue can be assessed using different measures such as Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, ocular features, blood samples, speech and others. EEG in particular has been reported to be highly authentic for estimating the state of drowsiness. However, measurement of EEG signals needs time and cooperation and may cause inconvenience to the pilot. Since the task of assessing the state of go/no-go for a pilot should be completed within a short duration of time, preferably within a couple of minutes, an appropriate and sensitive measure could be eye saccades.

Eye saccades are fast movements of both the eyes in the same direction. It has been widely established that the peak saccadic velocity is a valid indicator of the level of alertness of a person. Higher the peak saccadic velocity, more alert is the person.

A research team at IIT Kharagpur with Professor Aurobinda Routray (team leader), Dr. Rajlakshmi Guha (Psychologist), Mr. Anirban Dasgupta, Mr. Aritra Chaudhuri, Mr. Suvodip Chakroborty, and Mr. Punyashlok Dash, in conjunction with the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, DRDO, New Delhi, has developed a Fatigue Monitoring System (FMS) for pre-flight assessment of Indian Air Force pilots. The equipment is based upon a physiological measure and a psychological measure.


RESEARCH INNOVATION

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The physiological measure is electrooculogram (EOG), while the psychological measure is the performance of the pilot in a psychomotor vigilance test. EOG is a record of the standing electrical potential between the cornea and the retina, and is an indicator of eye movements. From the recorded EOG data, an algorithm has been developed for finding peak saccadic velocity.

In the FMS design, the EOG acquisition unit is specially designed by embedding the Ag-AgCl sensors inside the frame of a spectacle, for ease of acquisition of the signal. The frame of the spectacle has three electrodes – one located on the forehead and two on distal ends on the eyes.

The team has also utilised the concept of a Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) to design a game both for a PC as well as an Android device. The game has two independent metrics which are used to obtain the alertness level of the pilot: the number of correct responses and

the mean response time for the correct responses.

The main application has three sub-applications or activities for the concerned task. The first two sub-apps are the attention game and the EOG recording, and execute in parallel. The third and final sub-app perform the classification using a decision level fusion.

This system has been tested with EEG and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) which are standard measures of sleepiness and alertness. The findings demonstrate that the FMS was effective in more than 90% cases for the prediction of the Go/ No-go status for pre-flight assessment of IAF pilots.

The FMS has been evaluated in studies carried out at 1AMTC, HINDON and Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Bengaluru on Indian Air Force pilots and aircrew. At present the team is working on converting the wired system into a wireless module.

How does the FMS work?The pilot is seated and asked to wear the spectacles. Instructions are provided regarding the game. The application is started on the PC/Android tablet and the user starts playing the game. Simultaneous acquisition of EOG signals are carried out on the PC/Android tablet.Once the game is over, the third sub-app is executed for making the decision on the ‘Go’ or ‘No-go’ condition of the pilot. The decision is made considering the game scores (reaction time and number of correct responses) as well as the value of peak saccadic velocity.

Contact:Dr. Aurobinda RoutrayProfessor, Electrical [email protected]: +91(3222) 283072

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E very year, more than three and a half lakh people are diagnosed with new cases of leukaemia globally. Currently, the mainstay of leukaemia therapy is chemotherapy,

followed by some advanced treatment such as immunotherapy, radiotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. But chemotherapy is associated with many complications, few of which could even be life threatening.

Researchers at the School of Medical Sciences and Technology at IIT KGP, under the guidance of Professor Mahitosh Mandal, have now evolved a novel technique of ‘selective leukapheresis’, which can reduce the number of cancer cells to a minimum without affecting the normal cells and hence minimize the adverse effects associated with traditional chemotherapy.

Historically available systems of leukapheresis do not have any

selectivity of cancer cells over normal cells. As a result, after the leukapheresis process, a patient may suffer from severe thrombocytopenia (platelet deficient state) resulting in hemorrhage and/or severe neutropenia (normal WBC deficient state), which in

turn causes low cellular immunity and more susceptibility to serious infections.

The novelty of this system lies in its capacity for normal cell preservation, as it provides selectivity to cancer cells. It also includes recycling of magnetic particles (SPIO) which allows the system to process blood without any interruption. The application of magnetic cell separation for therapeutic purposes, using a separation device, recycling chamber and incubator, is particularly innovative.

Key Features High selectivity to cancer cells

Minimal loss of normal WBC and platelets

Reduces toxicity from nano particles

Easy to apply individually or adjuvant with conventional cancer therapy

THE PROMISE OF A NEW BREAKTHROUGH IN LEUKAEMIA TREATMENT

KGP researchers devise a system for cyto-reduction of circulating cancer cells from blood and a method thereof


RESEARCH INNOVATION

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In the words of Dr Pankaj Kumar Chhatrala at the Cancer Biology Laboratory in the School of Medical Science and Technology, “When selective leukapheresis is used in a patient, the number of circulating cancer cells in the blood reduces by 30-50%. As a result, the patient needs lesser doses of chemotherapy to achieve remission state. Thus they have less risk of development of the Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) and life-threatening complications associated with the rapid destruction of cancer cells by chemotherapy.”

The team has validated the concept on Minimal Viable Prototype and has also performed basic experiments on mouse models. The next steps would be to perform in-vitro experiment to test its

efficacy in leukemia blood (leftover from pathology test) followed by clinical trials in accordance with existing guidelines and regulation.

The team, however, does recognize that there are various barriers along the regulatory pathway that have to be crossed. “It is a time consuming process and we have to go step by step. Slow development process because of regulatory requirements is a big challenge in such work,” concedes Dr Chhatrala.

However all test results so far have been very encouraging and there are plans to eventually commercialize this technology, with possible initial collaboration among the Cancer Biology Lab at SMST- IIT, cancer hospitals or clinics and other cancer pathology labs.

How does Selective Leukapheresis work?The system of selective leukapheresis is analogous to that of a dialysis machine, except in its principal and separating technique. Blood is collected from the artery/arterio venous shunt of a leukemic patient by using vascular access devices – for example, catheter, tubings and pumps. Blood is then incubated with a specific amount of nanoparticles and anticoagulant in an incubator.

The total in-out time at the incubator is approximately 10 minutes, during which cancer cells are attached to the nano-particle on the cell surface and becomes

paramagnetic. Thereafter, the blood is passed into a separation unit where central blood channels are connected to peripheral channels with small branches.

While passing through this specially-designed separation unit under strong magnetic field the cancer cells are dragged from the blood into a buffer solution, leaving the collected blood with less cancer cells. At another end, the nano-substrate is scavenged from cancer cells and suspended into a physiological buffer, to be reused for the next cycle.

Contact:Dr. Mahitosh MandalAssociate Professor, School of Medical Science & [email protected]: +91(3222) 283578

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A MOBILE APP TO BOOST URBAN INCOMES

Imagine a cab driver for a multinational, who has a one-hour break between a drop-off and a pick-up. He puts his seat in recline, takes out his mobile phone and plays ‘Candy Crush.’ Or a waiter, who has a couple of hours off after lunch hour and spends the time on Facebook and other social media websites. What if they could still spend time toying with their phones, and get paid for it?


STUDENT INNOVATION

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That is the thought which inspired a team of four 4th year undergraduate students from the Institute to innovate on a mobile application named ACT – Action Changes Things, which won them the finals of the PAN India HULT Prize competition in January 2016. The contesting teams were asked to suggest ideas to double the income of people living in crowded urban areas within 5 years.

Team Aces, comprised of Anubhav Goyal, Anush Gupta, Lakshya Kalra and Shreshtha Mundra, have come up with a mobile application along the lines of Amazon’s ‘Mechanical Turk’ to provide people with a means of stable income by utilizing their non-productive broken time.

Mobile penetration being high even among the low-income category in the country, this has the potential to create a significant impact in terms of giving a boost to their earnings.

“We have seen young people standing in long queues for water or rations, and playing with their phones as they wait for their turn. Why can’t they use this free time to earn some easy money? That is the guiding principle behind our app,” says Anubhav of Team Aces.

The app has simple questions or tasks based on image categorization, text verification, basic data entry and sentiment analysis. “There are many research groups and companies that require such preliminary data processing for their operations and information data base. So we will have interested mobile device users to get these basic tasks done and transfer the monetary benefits to them,” explains Anush from Team Aces.

The development of the mobile app is currently in the beta stage. Team members are quick to acknowledge the initial guidance that they received from the Computer Science department. Travel expenses associated with their participation in the HULT competitions were also borne by the Institute.

The competition is organized by the HULT International Business School in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. It is the largest student competition globally seeking to solve the world’s toughest social challenges through innovations emerging at the world’s top universities and institutions.

Apart from being on top at the national finals, Team Aces also emerged among the top six teams at the Global regional round, held in Boston in March 2016.

While Team Aces came out on top at the National HULT Finals, they were not the only ones from the Institute. The keen spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship among students at Kharagpur can be estimated from the fact that two of the top three teams (five out of 30 in all) at the Ahmedabad finals were from IIT Kharagpur. Team Sanyojan comprising of Ayush Garg, Kartik Pal, Pradeep Kumar Mittapally and Pradyumna Mishra bagged the 3rd prize.

The idea of Team Sanyojan was to provide B2B Services and promote local entrepreneurship along the lines of a co-operative society, supported by an extensive technical platform and micro-financing schemes. “Our enterprise focuses on providing B2B services by connecting people, both skilled and unskilled, with businesses like contractor networks, security agencies etc. Workers, employed through this enterprise, will give back to the community by training other people for similar jobs,” said a member of the team.

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2 016 started with a bang for students at IIT Kharagpur. Close on the heels of winning the India finals of the Hult Prize, a team of 13 undergraduate students from various departments of the Institute won the ‘Gold award’ of Rs 5 lakh for their ‘i-Bike’

project at the KPIT Sparkle 2016, a national design and development innovation contest for engineering and science students across India. Team KGP competed with over 10,000 students from across 500 colleges in India in this competition, the theme for which was ‘Smart Solutions for Energy and Transportation.’ The competition received over 1700 innovative entries and 54 best teams made it to the grand finale, where the top shortlisted teams presented their innovative and sustainable solutions through scale models and working prototypes.

A BIKE THAT GOES AROUND ON ITS OWN


STUDENT INNOVATION

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What is the i-Bike?i-Bike is the outcome of a sincere quest among a group of students to come up with an autonomous bicycle model. This model has a three-way hybrid character, combining manual, electric and autonomous components, which means that the bicycle can drive itself autonomously, but also be driven around manually whenever required.

The overall design of the bicycle is achieved by modifying a normal bicycle to incorporate unique mechanical design elements in the form of driving, balancing, steering and braking mechanisms. The modifications are highly customizable and independent of each other, providing a wide range of applications according to the needs of the situation.

The i-Bike’s unique Dual-Locomotion Technology ensures that autonomy can be brought about without hindering any of its natural functionalities Wireless control and live tracking mechanisms are enabled through wireless telephone network. In autonomous mode, the bicycle has a novel and affordable software architecture, which enables it to follow specialised bicycle lanes and avoid obstacles, even as it maintains its global and local positions.

The team points out that the cost of the prototype was less than Rs 30,000; when scaled up, it is expected to be even less.

A green solution to myriad mobility challengesWhile it is universally acknowledged that public bicycles for travelling from one place to another is a dire need today, for the environment as well as for reduction of vehicular congestion in cities, the reason that bike-sharing has not taken off in a big way is the problem surrounding last-mile transportation. The problem of access to and from stations where they can pick up a cycle or drop it off has restricted the success of bike sharing models. A bicycle that can ride itself around through programmed instructions naturally

solves the issue.

Another very encouraging feature of the i-Bike is that it requires minimal changes to existing infrastructure. All modifications required in the physical model can be implemented on existing bicycles of any make. The stations can also be located anywhere.

The location of the i-Bike can be continuously updated on the server through GPS and any deviation from its determined path will stop the bicycle and notify the station in-charge. This will also prevent stealing and loss due to electronic glitches.

“Our dream of a self-driving bike grew out of a desire to support the mobility needs of differently-abled people. The aim was to devise a model which would allow autonomous rides, parking and retrieval, thus helping the mobility-challenged. As it evolved however, it became apparent that the project upon realisation could also go a long way in solving last mile connectivity issues that most urban centres are grappling with today.”

- Team i-Bike

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D r. Sirshendu De, Professor & Head, Department of Chemical Engineering has been selected for the Innovation Award 2016 for developing a ‘Low Cost Eco-friendly Laterite-based Arsenic Filter for Providing Safe

Drinking Water’ by the Indian Desalination Association (South Zone).

The technology has also been featured in the preferred list of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India’s compendium of arsenic mitigation plan adopted for the nation.

Arsenic mitigation technologies have been mostly adsorption-based, but the traditionally available adsorbents suffered inherent limitations, including cost unfeasibility and problems associated with regeneration and disposal of the spent adsorbent. The adsorbent in the alternative filter developed by the researchers at the Institute is prepared from the naturally and abundantly available laterite and does not require regeneration during its five-year lifespan.

The filter is found to have about three times the arsenic adsorption capacity than activated alumina (AA), the most commonly used sorbent. There is no leaching into the environment from the spent adsorbent.

The activated laterite-based filter does not require any regeneration or backwashing, making it the most promising solution among all available technologies. The composition of the filtered water is always within WHO permissible limits. A household filter is expected to be priced within Rs 3000-

3500 upon commercial production, which would be affordable for the common man.

The technology has been transferred to a private entrepreneur (M/s, Vas Bros Pvt. Ltd., Ranchi) who has come up with a production unit in Gopali and will be commercializing the filter.

AN AWARD WINNING LOW-COST ARSENIC FILTER

What does the word innovation mean to you and what do you see as the most

critical enabling factors for that?

Innovation means doing something new or improvising the existing knowledge to

develop a technology/product. A crucial factor to enable that would be the willingness to do something new and close observation powers, as well as having a strong perception of societal implication.

Many of your innovations have a clear social purpose; is that a conscious thrust?

Have you specifically been thinking of innovative research that would benefit low income groups or masses)?

Yes, to some extent. In fact, whatever research I pursue, it is always in the

back of the mind that some product should be developed out of that. This will invariably draw in issues like cost, societal relevance, acceptance, etc.

What are the challenges that you face, if any, in taking your scientific/research

innovation to the world, or scaling up its reach and impact?

The main challenges are to convince the end user regarding the utility of the filter and to convince stake holders like

officials (for example, from the Public Health engineering Department) who have a rather set bent of mind. Besides, one also has to identify an entrepreneur who will take up this technology for commercialization and set up a scaled-up plant.

Finally, could you tell us about some of the most promising projects in which you

are working on currently?

There are quite a few, some of them being: (i) Development of a low cost

fluoride removing filter from drinking water; (ii) Development of a low cost filter for removal of heavy metals from ground water; (iii) Separation of cyanide from steel plant effluent and (iv) Commercialization of ultra low cost hemodializers.

WITH THE

INNOVATOR

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INNOVATION AWARDS

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N andini Bhandaru, a PhD student from the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT

Kharagpur has been recently conferred the European Materials Research Society’s Young Scientist Award at EMRS 2016 Spring Meeting Lille France. Nandini elaborated on her innovative project, saying “This innovation proposes the possibility of fabricating nano scale patterned surfaces, which may act as the ‘mother board’ for many of the devices and applications at an extremely low cost and using an inherently simple methodology. With this technique, the fabrication costs of these surfaces can be reduced to one tenth of the current Photolithography or Electron Beam Lithography based methods which require high end expensive instrumentation. Part of the work has already been patented and published. One more paper and a patent are under preparation based on this work” Nandini has been working under the guidance of Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee from the Department of Chemical Engineering.

A FEW MORE MILESTONES ALONG THE WAY

F or the second consecutive year, IIT Kharagpur has won the highest number of laurels in the DST-Lockheed Martin

India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP) 2016, a PAN India Innovators’ Competition held at Federation House (FICCI), Tansen Marg, New Delhi. IIT Kharagpur had also emerged as the organisation with the highest number of awards in the 2015 edition of the DST-Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme.The top three winners this year are Manish Kumar Sharma from Electronics and Communication Engineering under the guidance of Dr. Sudipta Mukhopadhyay; Richa Mishra of the Advanced Technology Development Center under the guidance of Dr. Tarun Kanti Bhattacharyya and Dr. Tapas Kumar Maity, and Kausik Kapat of the School of Medical Science & Technology under the guidance of Dr. Santanu Dhara.

I IT-Kharagpur outperformed 276 institutes from across the country in the Gandhian Young Technology Innovation (GYTI)

awards in Delhi in March 2016 to win the maximum number of laurels. After four rounds of evaluation, 19 teams have been selected for innovation awards and 24 for appreciation. Of the 19 awards, 15 awardees in the Medical and Biotech innovations category will get a Department of Department of Biotechnology-sponsored (BITAC-SRISTI) grant of Rs 15 lakh each to further their prototypes.

I n April 2016, two fifth-year student groups of the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning secured First and

Second positions in the design competition on “Innovative Use of Steel” hosted by the

Institute of Steel Development and Growth, Ministry of Steel.First Prize winners: Anshul Deshmukh, Sarang Yeola, Nikhil Bapna and Subham MalpaniSecond Prize winners: Sahir Aziz, Supriya Pawar, Gaurav Purwar.

I n February 2015, Anirban Roy, a research scholar in the department of Chemical Engineering under the supervision

of Professor Sirshendu De was selected as joint runner-up for the 5th National Award for Technology Innovation in the category of Polymers in Public Health Care, for development of an ‘Indigenous Low Cost Haemodialysis Cartridge.’ The award constitutes a shield, a citation and Rs. 2 lakh.

A team of six students from the department of Mining Engineering – under the name Bharat Khanitras

-- won the second prize at the SME/NSSGA Student Design Competition held in February 2015 at the SME Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Denver, USA. The winning team comprised Harshad Chandak, Shivansh Shrivastava, Abhishek Gupta, Ashwin Agalcha, Abhishek Kumar, Rajeev Lochan Chakravarty ( Faculty advisor: Dr. Biswajit Samanta)

I n July 2015, a two-member team from IIT-Kharagpur -- Mohamad Meraj Shaikh (Architecture and Regional Planning) and

Spoorthy Kotla (Biotechnology) bagged the top awards at the international Go-Green competition in Paris with an innovative technology that could help conserve electricity by auctioning units. Professor Rambabu Roy of the Rajendra Mishara School of Engineering Entrepreneurship was their faculty advisor.

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A NEW ART OF LIVING WITH SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY

A group of four techno-management enthusiasts at IIT Kharagpur have launched an IoT-based start-up, Alive Home Technologies to revolutionise the smart home space in India. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are equipped with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network

without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

Alok and Poonam from the Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, Ankit from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication and Ravi from the Department of Electrical Engineering are working together at the Institute’s Innovation Lab, even as they continue their regular studies in the respective disciplines. Their vision is to build cutting edge, high-end and highly cost effective technology, and making the same accessible for lower middle-class Indians, who can currently only dream of such services.

To begin with, the team is working on creating complete smart home solutions, which are economical, smart, reliable, durable and at the same time secure. Their product, named LIFE, is a combination of a smart switch module that replaces the traditional and mundane switches commonly seen in homes and can be controlled using an app interface. The unique feature of the app is that it functions seamlessly even in the absence of an Internet connection.

The app provides user access, control and real-time energy analysis of all the appliances and helps users save a significant part of their electricity bill, whilst making their lives much more convenient and hassle free. The app also notifies the user in case of any unusual activity, for example, if the AC or TV is on while he is not at home. It sends an alert to the user so that he can take suitable action. It also gives suggestions based on user pattern.

Confident about the market potential of their technology, the team has launched talks with numerous real estate builders, who have shown interest in their product and the value of their proposition. MoUs with some builders are underway and LIFE, as a smart home product, could soon be installed in sample flats.

“As the advisor of their Master’s thesis project, I would say that Poonam and Alok earnestly undertook the task of this technology product development. They are very persistent and dedicated, characteristics which helped them in overcoming several hurdles in building Alive Home Technologies Pvt. Ltd. They possess the qualities of a successful entrepreneur and have created a co-founding team with capable and like-minded people such as Ankit and Ravi,” says Dr. P K Dan who acts as the mentor of the group.

Dr. Dan points out very pertinently that the mission of Team Alive is in sync with the Make in India campaign, a factor that could also play a role in the success of their enterprise. The team won the award for ‘Best Innovative Product’ in a business model competition conducted by the Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur and the Silver award in a B-plan competition conducted by Kshitij, the techno-management fest of IIT Kharagpur.


ENTREPRENEURS@KGP

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“Our team has a long-term vision of transforming various industries, after changing the operational norms in Indian homes. We aim to reform, agriculture, health, mining and other industries and make these companies a pioneer in the field of IoT. We have been bootstrapping till now and are talking to investors to raise funds.”

- Poonam Gupta, Co-founder, Alive Home Technologies

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CONTENTS · INNOVATION AT IIT KGP I nnovation is an important buzzword these days in the field of science, engineering and techno-management. At IIT KGP, the fore-runner in the IIT

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