The Hindu Business Line : Testing innovation, engg skills

A robotic wheelchair, an electronic cradle and an elevator that stops at a lower floor, rather than between floors, when the power fails, are some of the 17 projects that will vie for top honours in this event.

Sankar Radhakrishnan

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 28 On Monday, engineering students from across India will arrive in Technopark Thiruvananthapuram to compete in TechTop, a contest that will test their spirit of innovation and engineering skills.

A robotic wheelchair, an electronic cradle and an elevator that stops at a lower floor — rather than between floors — when the power fails are some of the 17 projects that will vie for top honours in this event sponsored by Technopark Thiruvananthapuram and organised by Degree Controls India Ltd, a subsidiary of the US-based Degree Controls Inc.

Besides testing the participants’ engineering skills, the event is intended to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among students, says N. Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark Thiruvananthapuram. Technopark, along with Degree Controls and the event’s co-sponsors IEEE and Executive Knowledge Lines magazine, plan to turn TechTop into a major annual event. The Technopark authorities expect the event to become a forum for identifying and promoting young entrepreneurs, he adds.

TechTop, which was first organised last year, is not a software development competition, emphasises Moossa C. Kandy, Operations Manager, Degree Controls India. The event is intended to promote innovation and engineering talent, he explains. However, from next year onwards, TechTop may include a separate category for software-oriented projects, he adds.

This year, the preliminary stage of the competition drew 50 applications from engineering colleges across the country. Of these 23 teams were short-listed and 17 have been invited for the finals in Thiruvananthapuram.

One of the conditions of the competition is that all projects must involve a tangible, socially relevant product, Mr Kandy points out. All 17 finalists will have to demonstrate working models of their products to the panel of judges and the team that is selected for the first place will receive a prize of Rs 1 lakh, he adds.

According to Nair of Technopark, all 17 finalists will be exposed to the facilities at T-Bic, Technopark’s business incubator.

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