Date:30/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/30/stories/2008103058810200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Entrepreneurs of tomorrow bag awards

Vidya Venkat

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

DOING CHENNAI PROUD: Members of the award-winning Panimalar Engineering College team pose with their invention. —

CHENNAI: They could well be young entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Thirteen college students in Chennai have bagged awards for their innovative ideas from the National Innovation Foundation, an institute supporting grassroots innovation and funded by the Department of Science and Technology.

The winners will receive the awards from former President A .P. J. Abdul Kalam at a function scheduled for November 26 in Ahmedabad. Dr. Kalam will review the models of these innovations and select one for a special award. “If the innovation is found to be marketable, the NIF will even arrange for venture capitalists to invest in the product,” NIF Coordinator P. Veejayshree said.

The first prize-winning innovation by three students of Panimalar Engineering College—L. Valampuri, M. Srihari Kumaran and R. Suresh Kumar—is an Accident Detection and Rescue System that can detect accidents in vehicles and send alerts through the GSM technology used for mobile telephony.

The ADRS device, attached to cars and motorcycles, detects the impact of collisions and send out emergency alerts to the police and other rescue services faster, Mr. Valampuri said.

T.A. Aparna of the Anand Institute of Higher Technology has invented a PVC capsule that can prevent steel rods from corroding. She said the structural stability of many old buildings was affected as the steel rods expanded and contracted with changing temperatures, and the structures developed cracks. The other prize winners from Chennai colleges are Parthiba Rajan of Rajalakshmi Engineering College who invented a bed with an automated support surface to prevent pressure sores.

V. Venkatesan, R. Vinod Kumar and R. Sudharshan from Rajalakshmi Engineering College have invented a device that uses solar energy to produce a refrigerating effect.

MNM Jain Engineering College students C. Srinath, Raj Kamal Jain, S.Jayaram, and Vijay Kumar have invented an automatic robot for use in libraries. The robot can detect a book that is taken out of its rack and put it back in the same rack.

T. A. Anathan, who had high schooling in Modern Higher Secondary School, Nanganallur, has invented a pouch that prevents squirting of liquid when the pouch is cut.

For information on the innovations and innovators visit: http:// www.nifindia. org/

In the school student category, S. Girish and Ashwin Nagarajan of Padma Sheshadri Bala Bhavan, K.K. Nagar, won the second prize in the class 8-12 category for inventing an automated traffic signal system which is based on the traffic volume rather than the time interval.