Comments
Sagar Rathee, a second-year mechanical engineering student at IIT-Jammu came to IIT-Madras to attend the annual Mechanica contest with the intention of developing an innovative product, bagging an award and returning home.
He never realised that he and his team members would end up getting an opportunity to become entrepreneurs thanks to developing a Weed Remover prototype.
In the past, students developed a product, say a robot or a Formula One car, and the winners were given prize money on the spot.
It ended there. However, this year students were asked to develop scalable products solving problems in agriculture that would be provided incubation support to commercialise them .
That’s how five teams, including IIT-Jammu, developed scalable products that could potentially hit the market one day.
The other four winners were from IIT-Madras; Ramco Institute of Technology, Rajapalayam; Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College, Puducherry, and Marian Engineering College, Menamkulam, Kerala.
IIT-Madras’ MechanicaTec2Farm contest, driven by students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was co-ordinated by Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG); Rural Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) and Creativiti Council, an NGO from Kerala, said K Venkat Teja, Student-Secretary, Mechanical Engineering Association, IIT-Madras.
Farm-related prototypes
With ten problems, three rounds of evaluation and over 170 registrations, a total of 14 teams were short-listed to the final round to develop prototypes and test their models.
The five winners were selected in June, said Teja. The prototypes are unique. The ‘palm tree climber’ developed by the students of IIT-Madras is a robotic climber that follows the human method of climbing.
This remote-controlled arm replicates the motions of human arms and can be used remotely from below the tree to cut leaves or fruits. Ramco Institute developed a machine to support banana trees and prevent damage by gusty winds.
Sri Manakula Vinayagar college developed a pepper harvester that provides a cutting-cum-collection system with easy operation and maintenance, said Teja.
Winners will be provided space at IIT Research Park to take their prototypes to the next level, including getting angel investments, said Abhijit P Deshpande, Professor in charge of RuTAG.
Incubation system
“Our endeavour is to encourage students to work on rural technology from conceptualisation, design, prototyping and field trials to incubation,” he told BusinessLine . RTBI will provide infrastructure, logistics and mentoring. During the three-month period, students will get exposure to the larger incubation ecosystem and work towards the basic business model for their venture, which could attract angel investors and eventually hit the market, said Deshpande.
The team from Kerala has already moved in to the park to develop a nutmeg collector that provides a simple mechanical system to harvest fallen nutmeg from THE ground in a standing position. “RTBI is guiding us on start-up methodologies like product development and market analysis.
Our aim is to ultimately help farmers,” said Benson Gipson from Marian Engineering College.
Rathee of IIT Jammu said: “We got necessary financial and technical support. We got connected with NGOs to help us better understand the problem. We are now actively continuing development of our product and are look forward to get incubated in RTBI.”
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.