Top 10 student teams showcase innovations at T-Hub

Hyderabad: After six months of training, top 10 undergraduate teams from all across the State showcased their innovative ideas in an innovation showcase event on Wednesday at T-Hub. The winning three best teams consisted wholly of women.

The event was conducted to engage the college youth of the State to address ground-level social issues through human-centric designs and entrepreneurial mindset development, under the Youth for Social Impact programme, a joint initiative by Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC), Department of Higher Education of Telangana, UNICEF India, Inqui-Lab Foundation, Y-Hub and YuWaah.

These organisations have trained 11,823 college students on 'Design Thinking', of which 10 teams were selected for showcasing their idea and the top three innovative ideas were declared as winners. The first prize was acquired by a team from Government Polytechnic College for Women, Warangal, for their concept of 'Rythanna Kit'. Second prize was bestowed to BVRIT College of Engineering for Women, Hyderabad for their idea, named 'Bite Systems'. Third prize was given to Telangana Social Welfare Residential Degree College For Women, Warangal East, for their idea named 'Krimi Haarini'.

According to TSIC officials, to encourage the students of Telangana from engineering, government degree, Polytechnic, and ITI colleges to solve rural-level problems, Youth for Social Impact (YFSI) was strategised and executed with the 6I approach: Inspire, Identify, Ideate, Immerse, Iterate, and Implement, which helped students to build solutions for rural level problems with an immersive experience.

Former State Chief Secretary S K Joshi, expressing his gratitude to the students, said, "I am happy to learn that today innovation becomes the reason for the tears from a teacher on their students securing the top position. This programme is a true example of how employment can be channelised through creativity and innovation."

State Chief Innovation Officer Shanta Thoutam, said, "TSIC's vision is to build and nurture the culture of innovation across 33 districts of Telangana. We believe that innovation cannot be restricted to students of specific demographics and geography, and that YFSI remains to be a true testimony of inclusive participation. TSIC along with the partners will hand-hold the top 10 ideas to scale them further in every possible way." UNICEF India Child Protection Officer Murali Krishna, said, "Our collaboration with Telangana Government began with a vision to enhance the learning abilities of students and eventually the entire learning ecosystem through Design Thinking and innovation.

We believe that it would become a strong foundation for building an innovative community. The programme also gave confidence that innovation can be perceived even by vulnerable communities if engaged, which we continue to do through Y-Hub." Gareth Wynn Owen, British Deputy High Commissioner to Telangana, said, "I believe everyone today who exhibited their innovations is the winner for the fact that they have taken a step to solve some of the crucial problems of the society. This programme sets the right notion that the importance of cultivating the thought to solve a problem leads to creative thinking among the youngsters."

Experiences shared by young innovators

Gai Chandana, a third-year student of Government Polytechnic College for Women – Warangal, whose team bagged the first prize, said, "Our idea was 'Rythanna Kit', that is a tarpaulin zipped cover which will be used to dry and protect the grains from moisture and rain. We all students belong to farmer families, we have seen how our family members struggle during the rainy season to dry their grains and with this idea, it will help dry the grains faster. We are enlightened that we bagged the first prize and now with help from the State government, we will be helping our farmers."

Grahya Yalavarthy, student of BVRIT College of Engineering for Women, Hyderabad, whose team bagged second prize, said, "After visiting a coal mine and witnessing their struggles, we thought to develop a prototype of 'Bite Systems', which is a safety device acting as a communication channel with safety features for underground mine workers. During the six month training period, we were tasked to learn several things and this will be helping us to minimise the difficulties faced by the coal mine workers."