As the city geared up to celebrate Onam, a group of budding engineers remained engrossed in assembling gadgets at the seminar hall of the Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, on Friday. They were fabricating waterproof LED lamps for the flood-affected languishing at relief camps.
The initiative, spearheaded by the student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), aims at supplying high intensity, low voltage LED lamps to relief camps. Project Candela was prompted by the shortage of lamps among relief materials.
Final year electronics and communication engineering student B. Lekshmi Priya, the IEEE student branch secretary, said the students chanced upon the idea while contributing supplies at the collection centres. “We came to know that there was a shortage of torches and candles at the relief camps. We felt LED lamps would be handy,” she says.
With the support of their faculty and the college cultural forum ‘Aagneya’, the students have made around 1,500 units since the project was launched on August 19, surpassing the initial target of 1,000 lamps. Though many hosteliers left for their native places for Onam, the remaining ones, along with day scholars, have been ploughing through thus far.
“Students of other colleges, including the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, have also pledged their support towards the cause,” Ms. Priya said.
Their initiative has evoked an encouraging response with an increased demand being reported for the lamps from Chengannur and Haripad.
