Prime ’83 innovation awards
With the belief that IITians should serve as harbingers of technological advancement in the country, consistent efforts to let the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation prevail on campus are always on the go. The program called ‘Prime ‘83’is one such effort from the pass out batch of the year 1983, who have committed mentoring to students in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. Their endeavours strongly complement the facilities available for nurturing entrepreneurship and innovation on campus.
Off late, pilot-run PRIME ‘83 Innovation Awards were announced and an event organized for aspiring innovators,as part of PRIME83 initiative.
The first round involving project documentation saw participation by 24 technical projects by students. Out of these, 7 teams were shortlisted for the final round. These teams then presented their respective projects in front of faculty and representatives from 1983 batch. The judging panel included Prof. J Ramkumar, Prof BV Phani, Mr. Rahul Swarup, Mr. Srinath Mukherji, Prof. Nachiketa Tiwari and Mr. Srikant Sastri.
Cash prizes worth Rs. 1,25,000 were given away to the winning teams.
Off late, pilot-run PRIME ‘83 Innovation Awards were announced and an event organized for aspiring innovators,as part of PRIME83 initiative.
The first round involving project documentation saw participation by 24 technical projects by students. Out of these, 7 teams were shortlisted for the final round. These teams then presented their respective projects in front of faculty and representatives from 1983 batch. The judging panel included Prof. J Ramkumar, Prof BV Phani, Mr. Rahul Swarup, Mr. Srinath Mukherji, Prof. Nachiketa Tiwari and Mr. Srikant Sastri.
Cash prizes worth Rs. 1,25,000 were given away to the winning teams.
Promote, Research, Innovation, Mentoring and Entrepreneurship (PRIME’83) is an initiative by the distinguished IIT Kanpur alumni Late Mr Rajeev Motwani, seconded by others in the ’83 batch with a purpose of creating successful tech-entrepreneurs. The SBERTC, SIIC (SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre) IIT Kanpur, the Office of Dean of Resource Planning and Generation, the Office of Research and Development, IIT Kanpur have come together to facilitate this initiative.
PRIME Awards received a very enthusiastic response. The judging panel comprised of Prof J R Kumar, Mr. Rahul Swarup, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of GOIP Global Services since 2010 and Mr. Srinath Mukherji, Co-Founder at India Shelter Finance Corporation Ltd and Dr. B V Phani. There were twenty-one teams who sent their entries, out of which seven were shortlisted for appreciation. Cash Prizes worth Rs 1,25,000 were given to the winners along with substantial incubation that would be allocated in phases depending on the business model.
Teams receiving joint first prize of Rs 25,000 each:
Judges Speak : Mr. Srinath appreciated the innovation and design of the shortlisted entries. As a word for the future enthusiasts, he emphasised upon the three Cs of a business plan- Customer who will form the user community and who should be willing to pay for the product, Competition, it is not just direct in nature, and alternatives also are the competitors for the product, Cash flows for the venture including the investment and return.
Participants speak: The participants acknowledged PRIME as a great boon for their venture. Kushang says “Alumni are generous and willing to give back! I still can’t forget the meeting with my mentor Rajiv Choudhary at his residence in Delhi. We had it all- hospitality, contacts, tips and tricks and everything”.
PRIME Awards received a very enthusiastic response. The judging panel comprised of Prof J R Kumar, Mr. Rahul Swarup, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of GOIP Global Services since 2010 and Mr. Srinath Mukherji, Co-Founder at India Shelter Finance Corporation Ltd and Dr. B V Phani. There were twenty-one teams who sent their entries, out of which seven were shortlisted for appreciation. Cash Prizes worth Rs 1,25,000 were given to the winners along with substantial incubation that would be allocated in phases depending on the business model.
Teams receiving joint first prize of Rs 25,000 each:
- Ecoilet- Proposed by Bhitush Luthra and Jivtesh Singh Aulakh, it transforms sewage into manure and fertilizers by installing specially made toilets in rural homes.
- Ecofridge-Presented by Abhishek Kumar, Abhishek Shashtry, Aman Khatri, Diptiman Purbey, Kumar Kushang, it is a prototype for low cost refrigerator which runs without electricity, especially targeted for rural areas, helps to cope up with food wastage as well.
- Drug-testing-Harshvardhan and his team built a device to enable measurement of efficiency of a drug to be tested in pharmacy institutes, labs, and industries.
- Water Purification-Presented by Ankit Anand, Arihant Bhandari, Shivam Prakash under the guidance of Professors Dr. K. Muralidhar, Dr. Rajganesh Pala and Manoj Sharma, they contrived a water purification device working on renewable sources of energy.
- GIS for Road Conditions- Vishesh Kumar Panjabi, Mohit Soni and Saurabh Kumar under the guidance of Prof. Bharat Lohani have come up with an amazing 3D mapping system of the streets around us.
- Hydrogen splitter- Arun Prakash Upadhyay, Dilip Kumar Behera, Gyan Prakash Sharma under the mentorship of Dr. Sri Sivakumar and Dr. Raj Ganesh S. Pala devised a unique and versatile method for fabricating metal-semiconductor nano/ heterostructure on variety of semiconductor surfaces via click chemistry for photoelectrochemical water splitting.
- Flapping with aerial vehicle- A prototype for spying/reconnaissance/aerial photography.
Judges Speak : Mr. Srinath appreciated the innovation and design of the shortlisted entries. As a word for the future enthusiasts, he emphasised upon the three Cs of a business plan- Customer who will form the user community and who should be willing to pay for the product, Competition, it is not just direct in nature, and alternatives also are the competitors for the product, Cash flows for the venture including the investment and return.
Participants speak: The participants acknowledged PRIME as a great boon for their venture. Kushang says “Alumni are generous and willing to give back! I still can’t forget the meeting with my mentor Rajiv Choudhary at his residence in Delhi. We had it all- hospitality, contacts, tips and tricks and everything”.