From a drone to spray a payload of pesticide in the designated farmland, a wearable device for monitoring the progress of patient rehabilitation to an app that frames the minutes after a meeting, a bouquet of products and solutions were on display at this year’s Research and Development Showcase of IIIT-Hyderabad.
Comprising talks, exhibits and a demonstration of research projects, the two-day showcase that got under way on Saturday on the campus served as a forum for visitors to get a peek into emerging technologies.
The demos, prototypes and presentations at the R&D Showcase-2019, the 18th in the annual series, represent IIIT-Hyderabad’s most recent developments in research and innovation in technology.
There are a total of 281 posters, demos and models. One of the objectives sought to be achieved through the event is to create research interest among college students and faculty as well as to help the industry identify areas for research collaboration with IIIT-H, a release said.
Drone applications
Sharing details of the drone, Pradeep Palelli of Thanos Technologies, the company behind the innovation, said the product improves the reach as well as efficiency of spraying pesticides as compared to the manual process. Commercial applications of the drone had been conducted in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the company is working to refine the offering further, while waiting for the government to finalise the regulation on drone applications and use.
Vying for attention at the showcase was Soujhe Innovative’s PhyzeeMon, an exercising gaming solution that includes a motion sensing wearable device strapped to a patient’s limb. The wearable sensors relay motion data in real-time to the data processor. Co-founder and CEO Soumitra Das said the company was also developing active and passive upper limb rehabilitation devices.
AI system
FreJun, another start-up at IIIT-H, is working on an AI system that extracts and summarises the minutes of meeting and action items from the conversations. This would save time and valuable resources, said Subhash Kalluri of FreJun.
Figuring in the showcase was also a start-up that has developed a robot to clean solar panels.
Head of the Institute’s CIE Ramesh Loganathan said around 90 start-ups were at present associated with the CIE and those showcased were recent entrants.
At the inaugural session of the conference, whose theme was healthcare, Dean (R&D) Vasudeva Varma stressed the need to move the lab to land. On the research trends in healthcare, Director of Global Innovations Impact Lab at PATH Satya Prakash Dash spoke on 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs for regenerative medicine and how it is expected to revolutionise medical care.
