Innovations for rural empowerment

Updated on: Wednesday, February 02, 2011

‘Innovautt', a two-day exhibition featuring ideas useful to society, conducted for the first time by the Anna University of Technology -Tiruchi (AUT-T) last week, brought out the creative instincts of students in ample measure.

The exhibits were in the realms of energy conservation, utilisation of solar energy, eco-sanitation and optimising use of natural manure in farms to restore soil fertility. Buoyed by the prize money totalling Rs. 2.5 lakh, students responded enthusiastically by coming out with ideas that would help reduce dependence on fossil fuel and with models catering innovatively to the needs of differently-abled people and pregnant women. Several among the over 1,000 exhibits had a rural focus.

The exhibition conducted under the auspices of the Innovation Club launched by vice-chancellor P. Devadas Manoharan in the main and constituent campuses of the university at the start of the academic year was envisaged as a forum for students to make possible the university's objective to empower villages with economic progress inherent in technological solutions.

The norm was that the ideas must be innovative, yet simple, cost-effective and workable. As many as 2,500 students from the university's main campus in Tiruchi and constituent campuses in Tirukuvalai, Ariyalur, Panrutti and Pattukottai had registered their names with the Innovation Clubs, R.S. Ponmagal, coordinator of Students' Innovation Club said, adding that ‘Innovautt' boxes were placed inside the campuses to receive ‘out-of-the-box' ideas from students.

According to the vice-chancellor, the students had performed a herculean task with support from the faculty.

Education should be aligned to social cause, he said, adding that education, in fact, started with finding solutions to questions the students themselves raise at the prompting by teachers. The exhibition, he felt, symbolised the effectiveness of teaching-learning approach.

Dr. Manoharan wanted students to overcome fear caused by the probability of failures, emphasising that commitment to the cause and relentless pursuit of objectives with self-confidence would stand them in good stead.

According to the vice-chancellor of Anna University, Chennai, P. Mannar Jawahar, who inaugurated the exhibition, teachers become facilitators at the level of higher education. To infuse innovation and creativity into students and earn their respect, it is imperative for teachers to acquire sound knowledge.

He reckoned that the quantum of practical exposure being low, such exhibitions and internships in industries would help them enhance their learning capabilities and motivate them to be innovative towards socially-relevant issues.

The models were evaluated by a six-member panel of judges drawn from industry, institutions and incubation entities.

They constituted A. Sivakumar, Project Coordinator, TREC-STEP (Tiruchi Regional Engineering College - Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park; J. Hariharakumar, Deputy General Manager - Training and Development, Neyveli Lignite Corporation; Jebamani Mathias, Head, Data Mining Info consim, Chennai; V. Balasubramanian, Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Annamalai University; P. Goutham, Professor, Department of Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, and D. Nedunchelian, Social Entrepreneur, Technocrats India College Finder, Chennai.

According to Mr. Nedunchelian, students were able to think well overcoming facility constraints, and come out with wonderful ideas that were put through a validation and fine-tuning process before the exhibition.

The objective was to make them refer to various sources to arrive at their own concept of value addition whereby they made themselves employable, he said, adding that the university was keen to obtain patent for their ideas.

Innovations for rural empowerment

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