Around six lakh technology students spend at least six months of their final year on a project. The projects mostly remain on paper and are often far removed from the demands of industry. To make the best use of students’ skills and innovations and to create a platform for industries and companies to utilise these projects, Ahmedabad-based NGO Sristi has launched a portal techpedia.sristi.org. The portal was launched under the Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) of Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Computer Society of India, Mumbai.

Students across the country can post the summary of their projects and innovations on this portal. The initiative has received enthusiastic response from the students of colleges in Maharashtra, Surat, Delhi and Bangalore and more than 100 innovations have already been posted.

LINKING STUDENTS AND INDUSTRY
“Every technology student puts in six  months for a project, but it remains only on paper. On the other hand, small scale industries can’t afford to get experts or IIT and IIM students to solve their problems. The portal will give industries a chance to explore young talent and students an opportunity to work on solutions to real-life problems of micro enterprises and develop their entrepreneurial skills,” said Anil Gupta, president of Sristi.

KEEPING STUDENTS ON THEIR TOES
Another goal of the portal is to promote originality and collabarative research among students and eliminate incentives to purchase projects from third party vendors. “The problem is that once a technical mind cuts corners and gets projects done by outsiders, he/she may not have compunction to cut any corner in future. At the same time, every time a student solves a real life problem, he/she becomes a better human being. If even one per cent of projects become new products, the industry will get at least 6,000 ideas to invest in,” Mehta added.

Ramesh Patel, secretary of Sristi, said, “Students will have to be on their toes to face real-life challenges posed by private and public companies. Companies will also get a chance to identify bright students who can be hired for research and development projects.”

“Incentives will be given to students who address the problems of micro and small enterprises, find outstanding low cost process and products for the industry, add value to grassroots innovations or develop business plans to become entrepreneurs, based on technologies developed by them or other students,” he added.

THE KHO KHO MODEL
The portal will help to carry forward an idea created by one group of students to the next stage by another group. The students can create a relay or kho kho model of project development by building upon each other’s ideas. “Let us say, an idea which came to a particular stage at place ‘a’ could be taken forward to next stage in place ‘b’ and then further developed at ‘c’ and may be in a few cycles, it will become a product,” said Gupta.