DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Meanwhile, a team of students at Institute of Engineering and Management, led by Prof Biswajoy Chatterjee of the Department of Robotics, created a robot that can track, recognize and follow a human; follow voice commands and has speech functions. Its differentiating factor is the Mobile Exploration Robotic Platform on which the robot is based—an open platform that allows programmers to write additional functions in any code language. The department, which has a track record of winning every robotics competition in the country, is hoping to commercialize the robot for blind people.

As Dr Das rightly says, “Such classroom experiments, which focus on innovation, will lead to much bigger things. We hope that students are inspired to make India a leader in product innovation in the years to come.”

Day 5: Durgapur
Bengal College of Engineering and Technology
Bright-eyed and hugely excited after the 5000 people strong public rally, which shook the sleepy steel town on Sunday, the E-Week buzz continued to rule in the Bengal College of Engineering and Technology.

With 150-plus events lined up, the campus never seemed to rest. While case studies, paper presentations, panel discussions and group competitions continued to be crowd pullers, the students did some serious social entrepreneurship with a clean-tech angle as well.

The students adopted a neighboring slum that didn’t have electricity, and provided indigenously created solar panels to light over 100 houses. The project was not easy as students had to take time out of study hours to conduct research and build the panels. The materials itself cost them Rs 70,000. However, the entire student community came together, organized campaigns and cultural fests and collected the funds needed to make the project work.

There couldn’t have been a better celebration of the E-Week spirit!

Students of Shri Bhagwaan Mahaveer Jain College

Day 6: Hyderabad
Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology
For an infrequent visitor of Hyderabad like me, MJCET’s treasure hunt was a delightful treat. Staying off the typical tourist routes, this hunt traced the inspiring green buildings of Hyderabad.

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that Hyderabad had so many eco-buildings. The simplest clue turned out to be ‘The world’s third greenest building’, referring to the self-sustainable Sohrabji Godrej Green Building Center. The Yogi Bear Park, a favourite picnic spot for kids, was an easy guess too, as its mini golf park is known to have the largest green cover.

The hunt also touched upon Our Place that won the Best Eco Friendly Restaurant in 2003; KBR Park, the largest green spot in Hyderabad; Doctor’s Colony, that won the Best Eco-friendly Colony Award twice; Save the Rocks Society that is campaigning to protect the city’s rock formations and Greenko, a company doing research in bio-diesels and carbon creadit.

As cars vroomed past me on the chase for the city’s greenest treasures, a student next to me was suddenly struck by a business idea, “Hey, why don’t we start a business using this route and call it an ecotour package?”

Now, did I just witness the beginning of a new startup?

Day 7: Bangalore
Shri Bhagwaan Mahaveer Jain College
The students of Jain College were out with a loudspeaker, shouting out the message of E-Week to everyone within earshot.

While competitions, panel discussions and entrepreneurial talks ruled the week, the students also initiated programs that were high on the sustainability factor. For example, the students have installed a rainwater harvesting plant in Jain Residential School in Kanakapura, at the cost of Rs 82,000. The entire amount is sponsored by the institute.

The college has also formed an Eco Club, in association with Bangalore’s leading NGO Eco Watch, to build environment awareness. The club is open for membership to other colleges too.

The hottest event of the week was Entrabiente, an entrepreneurial-cum-entertainment three-day program, which attracted participation from 11 colleges. With intensive lobbying, the students managed to rope in Cognizant as the main sponsor and raised Rs 3 lakh in sponsorship money.

We love this noise, people!

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