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Hyderabad, Aug 25 (PTI) A business idea born out of lived experience, grounded firmly in domain knowledge, and informed by extensive research has every chance to take birth and grow, averred the professors gathered here at the GITAM (deemed-to-be) University on Thursday for an event.
What makes a difference is asking the right questions and knowing where to look for answers, they said.
Such ideas and more floated at the annual SmartIDEAthon 2023 event, where students pitched startup ideas to investors.
The event was organised by the GITAM (Deemed-to-be) University, Hyderabad, sponsored by Startup India, a part of the government’s initiative to foster a start-up ecosystem in India.
As part of the event, students pitched their business ideas, vying for a Rs 2 lakh startup capital and a sponsored trip to Boston for mentorship and business coaching.
“The market will decide at the end of the day whether your idea is good or not,” said D Sambasiva Rao, the Pro Vice Chancellor of the university while addressing students at the event’s inauguration.
Professor Greg Collier of Northeastern University, US, advised students to ground their experiments on the basis of their experience.
“A student’s world exposure is a very unique exposure for problem and problem-solving,” said Collier, the Director of International Programs, NUCEE, Northeastern University, US, which is also a collaborator for the event, while talking to the media.
“Students coming out with such exposure have domain understanding. They understand the issues in a real way and experience them in a real way at home. They see these problems and they want to fix them,” he said.
A case in point is Anup Paikaray, from Odisha University of Technology and Research, Bhubaneswar, the winner of the event, who witnessed his grandmother suffering from effects of indoor air pollution, such as reddening of eyes and incessant coughing, which were caused by her use of a mud stove for cooking. It proved to be the trigger behind his ideation of a heat-powered air blower, a mechanical device that harnesses excess heat from ‘chulhas’ or ‘tandoors’ and converts it into rotational energy for an internal fan.
“Incomplete and inefficient combustion occurring in these wooden stoves produce harmful carbon and particulate emissions. I found out that long-term exposure to these emissions caused health issues and I wanted to do something about this problem,” said Paikaray, who is the founder of Newrup Tech Solutions, the start-up.
The runner-up, Vineet Kumar from Sershah Engineering College, Bihar, is looking to address another huge issue — plastic pollution. His innovation, called the Polyfueler, aims to convert plastic waste to fuel by the process of depolymerisation with catalytic reduction.
“Upon being applied with external heat and processed with the catalyst, plastic waste fed into Polyfueler is turned into fumes, which is then converted into fuel,” said Kumar, who has been awarded Rs 50,000 cash prize and a partially-sponsored trip to Boston for mentorship and entrepreneurship coaching.
The catalyst along with the process has been developed by him in collaboration with researchers from IIT, Mandi.
“Plastic waste is a main contributor to pollution. I wanted to create a sustainable solution so that people didn’t have to throw away plastic. Instead, they can collect and convert it to fuel. From 1kg of plastic, we can get 800 ml of fuel,” said Kumar who has been working on this project since he was in high school.
Speaking about the opportunities he received at the event, Paikaray said, “Connecting with the right people is half the job done,” “Getting to go to a foreign university is a big deal. At this event, I am getting exposure to media and developing connections with coaches, mentors and judges.” All the eight finalists at the SmartIDEAthon, including Kumar and Paikaray, said that the event helped them develop connections with investors, gain perspectives and suggestions on their business ideas and enhance the visibility of their startup ideas and concepts.
Echoing their thoughts, Shanta Toutam, Chief Innovation Officer, Government of Telangana said, “Such platforms help validate the students’ solutions to problems. They get expert feedback and can get in touch with the desired network of people. Their ideas become more visible to other experts, who might get interested in mentoring them. The ecosystem extends support to them and their ideas,” she said.
Asked about the road ahead for these students, Toutam said,” Nowadays, everyone is taken equally in the start-up ecosystem. The ideas that didn’t succeed can be tweaked, pivoted or they could find another market.” Some of the ideas pitched by other finalists included a technology to help visually challenged women in their menstruation cycle, an anti-diabetic candy created to help people regulate their blood sugar levels and an AI-driven rover for cotton farming and automating other farming tasks.
Collier also suggested students use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their research work.
“AI is speeding up the research process so that we ask better, deeper and more insightful questions that can help us solve bigger problems,” he said.
The event, the third such, is a student-run affair and is being held by the Venture Development Center (VDC) of the varsity in collaboration with Northeastern University. The VDC acts as a venture pre-incubator and epicentre for all start-up activities at GITAM University. PTI KRS RPA
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