IIT - D Indian Institute of Technology Delhi 'Open House' is all set to showcase some innovative projects with a "high societal impact"

Updated on: Thursday, April 21, 2016

iitd The 12th edition of the annual Indian Institute of Technology (IIT - D) Delhi 'Open House' is all set to showcase some innovative projects with a "high societal impact".

What will Open House showcase?

Open House, scheduled to start from April 23, will have over 500 research projects and 80 demo projects on display for the visitors, which includes things ranging from hip protective device for the elderly, diagram books for blind students to a system of better drainage systems in Delhi.

"The idea of IIT -D Open House is to identify projects where a new product or technology is created with high societal impact. We are going to connect with agricultural and healthcare institutions and would like to work on multi-disciplinary projects offering societal benefits," said V Ramgopal Rao, who assumed office as the IIT-D director two days ago, according to PTI.

The projects that the IIT-D had taken to help visually impaired are as follows:

It is working on technology-driven devices like the blind cane, that have shown positive results.
The latest project focuses on providing blind students access to non-visual representations of diagrams and figures in subjects like maths, science, economics and geography in tactile form and at an affordable cost.
What is thermoforming?

"Thermoforming lies between embossing and swell technology. While embossing might be economical, it is less durable and prone to wear and tear. Swell technology is expensive with each paper costing Rs 100. With thermoforming, more durable diagrams are created at a nominal price of Rs 10-Rs 15 per sheet," said Renu Kaushik and Vibha Chaudhury, who are working as research scholars for the project.

Initiatives taken for blind people:

They have teamed up with NCERT to bring out a map book for Upper Primary grades in blind schools.
They have also brought out science and maths textbooks for ninth grade and an economics textbook for the eleventh grade
They have also come out with a yoga book for the Iyengar society, which can be used by visually impaired individuals to practise yoga.
While emphasizing on the need for tech-based initiatives Rao said that it will be among one of the primary areas of focus for the years to come.
"I have seen that a lot of start ups are coming up but there are hardly any tech-based start-ups. We have to focus on tech and tech-incubation is what we will focus on in the next few years," he said.

'Preparation of Master Plan of Drainage for NCT of Delhi' is another project offering a high societal impact. It was awarded to IIT-D by Delhi government to formulate the master drainage plan for the city by 2021.

A. K Gosain, lead the team that studied the existing natural drainage system, urban storm and waste water systems and evaluated their water carrying capacities.

For the study, the city was divided into three areas: trans-Yamuna region, South Delhi and Najafgarh area and region wise guidelines have been prepared to rehabilitate and augment the storm water management system.

IIT - D Indian Institute of Technology Delhi 'Open House' is all set to showcase some innovative projects with a "high societal impact"

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