Intel said that for its embedded design competition, more than half the entries have come from tier-II cities.

Also, the bulk of the ideas are addressing challenges on a macro scale such as efficient seed planting, healthcare services and crop disease control as compared to previous years when the participants focused on consumer electronics-related issues, according to Intel officials.

Intel, which runs an embedded design contest to encourage college students to come up with an idea that can be used in its products said that out of the 2,800 entries received this year, a large number came from tier-II cities such as Kanpur, Pant Nagar, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Vellore, Vizag, Kanpur and Goa.

“This year participants who submitted their ideas are trying to solve real-life problems and it is close to the area that we work in,” said Jitendra Chaddah, Director, Intel India. Ideas ranging from a sensor-based glove for paralytic patients to crop disease identification and a soil-testing robot that can lead to proper crop cultivation were amongst the 34 short-listed ideas.

winners

Joseph Jeffrey, Roshan G. Patil and Skanda Kumar K. N. from International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B) and Siddartha Khastgir and Anubha V. Sahoo from Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-K) won the Intel India Embedded Challenge for 2012 for their ‘wireless sensor-based smart parking system’ and ‘Development of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Coastal Monitoring Applications’ projects.

The intellectual property rights will remain solely with the participants, with Intel having rights to publish the contest details, said Intel officials. Winners have the opportunity to participate in ‘The Next Big Idea’, a technology entrepreneurship contest run by the Department of Science and Technology and the Indian Institute of Management, in conjunction with Intel India.

> venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

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