IIT Palakkad holds innovation session for school students

IIT Palakkad and UBA host innovation session for school students, featuring hands-on activities and feedback from faculty.

The Innovation Council of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad and the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), a flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Education, jointly conducted a session on innovation for school students on Wednesday.

As many as 45 students and teachers from different schools in and around Palakkad attended the session led by IIT Palakkad’s Chief Innovation Officer Jacob Chandapillai. Innovative ideas and proposals by the students were discussed at the session.

IIT Palakkad’s faculty examined each proposal mooted by the students and provided their feedback. Mathematics Assistant Professor Sarath Sasi, Biological Sciences and Engineering Assistant Professor Prasanna Bhat, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Kanmani Subhu, Data Science Associate Professor and UBA coordinator Sahely Bhadra, UBA-IIT Palakkad project coordinator Anurenj P. Kumar, and research scholars interacted with the students.

Apart from discussions, the programme had hands-on practical sessions and opportunities for the students to present their novel ideas. The event included a design thinking workshop to encourage the application of creative problem solving techniques, and pitch sessions where students showcased their ideas.

There were also sessions that focussed on discussing the innovative ideas submitted by the students to the Young Innovators Programme (YIP). Among the key innovations presented were a drug detector, an automatic on-off mechanism for street lights, and geofencing to keep wild animals out of farmlands.