At Rashtrapati Bhavan : Solar dustbin, artificial knee among fresh ideas from young innovators

by Shivendra Singh · March 21, 2015

Diptanshu Malviya (left) with his Wrapper Picker, while Priyanka Mathikshara shows her solar dustbin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has found an ardent supporter in 15-year-old Priyanka Mathikshara. An aspiring engineer, the Chennai resident has designed a 35 kg-public dustbin, which has three modules — a solar trash crusher, a level communicator and a solar street light.

“It crushes the garbage, allowing maximum capacity usage. Once it is full, it sends a message to the nearby dump yard to clean it, so there is no overflowing of garbage. It also features a Wi-Fi system and a CCTV camera,” says Mathishara. The design was developed during her stay at Rashtrapati Bhawan, where she was one of the 10 innovators participating in the two-week residency programme that would culminate on March 21.

Mathikshara’s innovation could work well with 15-year-old Diptanshu Malviya’s Wrapper Picker. This motorised device picks up littler and collects it in a storage bin.

There are medical innovations too. If Shantanu Pathak, 27, has designed a mobile pregnancy care solution programme that identifies complications in high-risk pregnancies, Anand TS, 28, has a solution for transfemoral prosthesis — an indigenous polycentric knee for increased stability on uneven surfaces. A student at IIT-Mumbai, Vikas Karade has a software/algorithm that can generate 3D model of bone shapes from its 2D X-ray image. It is an alternative to the conventional method of building 3D models from CT scans.

Described by President Pranab Mukherjee as “creative minds” and “doers”, the participants of the residency had two authors and two artists, apart from the innovators. This is the fourth residency organised under the programme initiated by Mukherjee in December 2013.

“We got help from technical experts, who guided us through the glitches and suggested cost-cutting measures,” says Sarthak Shukla. Youngest member of the residency, the 14-year-old Ghaziabad boy has a solution for easy access to items kept in the refrigerator — replace the rectangular shape with a cylindrical one and fixed rotatable trays inside.

Source:: Indian Express