Young Geniuses: TR35 Award Winners

Prajwal Kumar: Remote controlled power tiller

A bachelor in electronics and communications from Visveswaraiah Technological
University, Karnataka, Prajwal Kumar specializes in robotics and automation. He

has recently developed a remote controlled system for power tiller. Farmers have

to walk along with the power tiller to control its direction. However, now the

electronics remote control device can enable farmers to operate their power

tillers without even getting into the field. His other inventions include

tree-climbing and harvesting robots, paddy field weeding machine, industrial

inspections robots, and an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

Dhananjaya Dendukuri: Low-cost medical diagnostics

Dhananjaya Dendukuri, PhD in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, has developed a novel microfluidic-chip based platform to perform

low-cost medical diagnostic tests with a focus on immunoassays (protein tests).

The new platform allows samples of blood, urine, saliva, or other body fluids to

be loaded directly on to a plastic microfluidic chip and tested for the presence

of multiple analytes in a few minutes. Dendukuri along with his team has

developed a technology to manufacture the microfluidic chips to circumvent the

problems of loading reagent for multiplexed assays.

Manoj Kumar Mandelia: Wastewater management and power generation

Manoj Kumar Mandelia, a student pursuing integrated MTech from IIT Kharagpur,
has conceived a solution (Locus) to deal with both wastewater management and

producing electricity. Locus is a microbial fuel cell integrated with sewage

treatment systems to treat wastewater and simultaneously generate electricity.

Mandelia heads a team of five people engaged in the Locus project. Locus, which

stands for localized operation of bio-cells using sewage, can achieve chemical

oxygen demand (COD) reduction levels in wastewater to about 60-80%. Locus is

currently a lab scale model of 10 litres and has been tested in the Fermentation

Technology Lab of IIT Kharagpur.

Vishal Gupta: Plugging data security loopholes

Vishal Gupta, founder and CEO of Seclore Technology, has developed the
innovative Seclore FileSecure and Seclore InfoSource, two noted products in the

field of information rights management (IRM) and secure outsourcing. The

information security management solutions provide persistent end-to-end

information protection for secure outsourcing and document usage control.

However, Seclores expertise lies in protecting data post distribution,

irrespective of its location and mode of transfer. Seclore FileSecure is a

document usage rights management solution which allows owners of documents to

control its usage before and even long after the documents have been circulated.

Satyam Trivedi: Intelligent power usage optimization

Satyam Trivedi, a solution architect at Indrion Technologies, Bengaluru, has
developed a solution which gives the power in the hands of the user! For decades

consumers have been paying electricity bills based on centralized reading. The

technology not only prevents users from controlling their usage of electricity

but also fails to encourage optimized use of power. Vidyut, a smart

wireless/switch flash meter, can be plugged into the switch board or integrated

with it. The solution enables users to access their facilitys power consumption

data at a central repository on the Internet.

Indrani Medhi: Text-free UIs for illiterates

A student of design, Indrani Medhi has developed a design process to expand the
impact of technology to those who cant read. She has developed text-free user

interfaces (UIs). These are design guidelines that would allow any first-time

illiterate person, on first contact with a computer, to immediately realize

useful interaction with minimal or no assistance. Medhis applications are based

on a few key principles: extensive use of hand-drawn, semi-abstracted cartoons

with voice annotation in the local language, aggressive mouse-over

functionality, a consistent help feature, and looping full-context video

dramatizing the purpose and mechanism of the application. She has applied these

principles to design four applications: job search for the informal labor

market, health information dissemination, a mobile money transfer system, and an

electronic map.

Kranthi Kiran Vistakula: Exchanging heat as required

Kranthi Kiran Vistakula, a postgraduate in mechanical engineering and technology
policy program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, founded

Dhama Apparel Innovations in Ahmedabad in 2008. His recent innovation, called

ClimaCon, is a unique technology, which when used in a jacket, can provide

comfort to the user in temperatures ranging from -30C to +50C by maintaining

the body temperature of the user between 18-40C. According to Vistakula, The

jacket weighs 650-700 grams and is probably the lightest apparel in the world.

Vistakulas technology can even be applied to other apparels as well as areas

such as infant incubators and cooling large spaces such as auditoriums. The

jacket can be worn and carried around like a normal jacket with up to eight

hours of performance on a single charge of batteries. It can also be cleaned and

cared for like normal jackets. Dhamas product team is also working closely with

the army to develop a solution for heating/cooling the missiles which will

increase the performance and reduce various tangible and intangible costs

incurred by the army.

Aravind Narayan: Cleaner coolant recovery

Aravind Narayan, a mechanical engineer and founder of Pure Tech India, a
knowledge based start-up, has developed a coolant recovery system (CRS).

Coolants are widely used in most of the machine tools for cooling and

lubrication. During the course of operation, the coolant gets contaminated with

tramp oil (all lubricating oils), dust, and bacterial contamination. These

contaminants not only cause unhealthy work environments, but also become

environment hazards on disposal. Existing technologies such as belt skimming,

paper band filtration, and biocide dosing offer piecemeal solutions. Narayans

CRS technology can extract the oil for reuse and offers a comprehensive

solution. He has also developed an innovative technology of acid recovery using

diffusion analysis equipment (Dialyser). The Dialyser recovers pure pickling

acid from waste acid. Narayan has been associated with a number of clean

technology initiatives over the past ten years.

Shashikant Suryanarayana: Steer-by-wire vehicle

Shashikant Suryanarayanan, the founder and chairman of SEDEMAC Mechatronics and
also an assistant professor with the department of mechanical engineering, IIT

Bombay, led the development of Indias first steer-by-wire vehicle. The by-wire

systems, which replaces traditional mechanical complexity with less complex and

more versatile mechatronic solutions are increasingly popular in the automotive

industry. The steer-by-wire system developed by Suryanarayanan offers

substantially improved driving experience, reduction of under-the-hood space

constraints, and realization of the much improved vehicle control. The defining

feature of steer-by-wire is the absence of mechanical linkages between the

drivers hand wheel and the steered road-wheels. A Mahindra Scorpio was

retro-fitted with a steer-by-wire system with a unique multiple-actuator

configuration. In the system developed, each of the front wheels are steered

independent of each other. This allows for compensation of coupling effect

between different motions of the vehicle leading to improved vehicle handling.