Engg students' projects may help areca farmers, home makers

The engineering students of Vivekananda Collegeof Engineering at Puttur have come up with three innovative projects that would help in the day-to-day lives of the areca farmers, home makers and computer operators.

The Mechanical Engineering students of the College have designed an areca sheaths cutting machine and spices grinding cryogenic grinder.

As it is believed that areca sheaths if fed to the cows  increase the milk production, a team of four students namely Ankith, Prashobh, Muralidharan and Arun Peter have designed a handy machine that quickly enables to cut the sheaths, thus making the areca growers job easy.

The motor used in the machine helps to cut the sheaths into small pieces and transfers it to the storing unit. Approximately 70 kg of areca sheaths could be cut in an hour.

The project was taken up under the guidance of Professor Sudarshan Bhat and Panaje Milk Society is sponsoring the machine, according to a press release.

Spices grinding machine

Another team of Mechanical Engineering students have developed spices grinding machine named cryogenic grinder.

The grinder intends to retain the aroma and taste of the spices which is usually reduced in the normal grinding process due to heat generation.

The cryogenic grinder maintains the low temperature in the grinder so that heat is not generated while grinding the spices, hence the aroma of the spices is retained even after powdering them.

The team which developed the machine consists of Manoj, Kiran, Prajval and Puneeth and they developed the machine under the guidance of senior lecturer Vijay.

The project was supported by former ISRO Scientist and ISRO Cryogenic Department Director Prof M S Bhat and was sponsored by Karnataka State Science and Technology Department.

CS Students invention

The Department of Computer Science students have come up with an invention of controlling the personal computer using finger signs, rather than using the mouse.

Developed using the image processing technology, here the computer user will have to wrap two different coloured bands on two fingers and make gestures before the web camera and operate the computer from a set distance.

The team of students who developed the technology includes Vinayak Kini, Siddharth, Sandesh and Guruprasad. The project was carried out under the guidance of lecturer Radhika Shetty and Department Head Prof P V Bhat, informed a release.