Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Indian Institute of Technology Madras Centre For Innovation’s Annual ‘Open House’ event, which showcases students' innovative tech projects, returned to a physical mode this year. Opened to business and industry leaders, alumni, faculty and students, the CFI Open House 2022 was conducted on Sunday on the campus, featuring over 60 projects.
Furthermore, for the first time, the event was also accessible on a Metaverse Platform called ‘Gather Town’ to a limited audience this year. The students developed a virtual world to showcase their innovations to other stakeholders not present physically.
More than 1,500 people, including around 100 eminent industrialists and IIT Madras alumni, participated with another 500 taking part virtually through ‘Gather Town.’
The Centre for Innovation is India’s largest student-run 24/7 innovation lab, home to 13 clubs, four competition teams and more than 700 members. It provides a unique platform for the students of IIT Madras to apply their engineering knowledge and materialise their ideas into products.
Speaking after inaugurating the event, Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Innovation is the heart of any academic institution. This activity taken up by CFI provides not only a platform for young innovators to showcase their creations but serves as a great source of inspiration for other young students to innovate.”
Prof. Kamakoti also launched the new CFI website on the occasion. Speaking about CFI, Prof. Nilesh Vasa, Dean (Students), IIT Madras, said, “The CFI is a student-driven facility, which inspires students to work creatively and in a collaborative manner towards new technological developments. Open house organised by the CFI will showcase the affiliated team's achievements and dreams which they would like to implement towards realising the novel technological frontiers.”
The Open House hosted projects such as CFI Team Abhiyaan’s autonomous vehicle called the ‘Bolt,’ Team Abhyuday’s rocket, Team Avishkar’s Hyperloop, a ‘Sports Science and Analytics’ projects done in collaboration with Sports Science Centre of Excellence, IIT Madras, a Bird Diverter project undertaken in partnership with Wildlife Institute Of India, and projects on Blockchain Technology. The event will also host numerous industry-proposed projects such as the Job Aggregator project with TMI Group and the Dental Implant Project.
READ: From 'Bolt' to 'Hyperloop': IIT Madras features students' innovative tech projects
Highlighting the unique aspects of CFI Open House 2022, Prof Prabhu Rajagopal, faculty advisor, CFI-IIT Madras, said, “The CFI is one of the most energising and constructive activities at IIT Madras where students come together to 'learn by doing' and self-organise to develop solutions for industrial and societal problem statements. Today nearly 10 per cent of IIT Madras students are engaged with CFI and this cuts across the undergraduate-postgraduate ‘divide’.”
Prof Prabhu Rajagopal added, “A number of CFI projects and teams have over the years ‘graduated’ to form the core of successful start-ups such as HyperVerge, Planys and Tvasta. The Open House is the largest calendar event of CFI, showcasing the best of the years’ student projects.”
Furthermore, Prof Asokan Thondiyath, faculty advisor, Team Anveshak, CFI-IIT Madras, said, “Over the years CFI has helped the student community to realise its potential and make some brave steps in experimenting with the technology. Happy to know that Team Anveshak has steadily progressed in the last three years and is in a very advanced stage with the new rover named ‘Foresight.’ The custom-made wheels, lightweight manipulator and state-of-the-art electronic system ensures that Foresight can operate seamlessly and reliably.”
Since CFIs’ inception, multiple student ventures have been patented with numerous student proposed projects winning accolades in national and international contests. Furthermore, various startups have also emerged as a part of CFI over the years. Despite the pandemic slowing down the usual course of events, the clubs and competition teams have initiated commendable new projects in the past year.
Sharing their experience on working on these projects, Dhanveerraj JM, student Executive Head, CFI-IIT Madras, said, “Starting from a completely online year that brought various challenges, the competition teams have performed exceptionally well in the international competitions and have brought CFI and IIT Madras immense pride. The clubs have made leaps in their projects and have taken up various industry proposed projects and many new initiatives. Even with all the odds stacked against us in these trying times of Covid, the teams have not let their innovating minds sink down.”
Nitish Gupta, Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary, IIT Madras, said, “CFI has been an amazing platform for students to work on their ideas and propose projects through SIP (Student Innovation Programme), which further strengthens the CFI’s motto of ‘Walk in with an idea, walk out with a product. ’ In addition to this, the student innovation lab has been successful in attracting and working together with various industries on multiple projects like the Bird Diverter project in association with the Wildlife Institute of India.”
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