Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology Executive Secretary S G Sreekanteswara Swamy said “the KSCST is all set to organise a two-day long 38th series of seminar and exhibition of student project programme (SPP) at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management at Adyar, from August 20.
Briefing media persons here on Tuesday, he said “students of 94 engineering colleges will display 259 projects out of 459 selected by the KSCST for financial assistance during 2014-15. The KSCST had received a total of 1,630 project proposals from 130 engineering colleges from across the state. These project proposals were scrutinised by experts from Indian Institute of Sciences, NAL, HAL and other institutions and had approved 459 projects for the financial assistance. After the nodal centre evaluation, the experts have selected 259 projects for the seminar and exhibition. So far, the KSCST has supported over 7,500 projects since its inception in 1977.”
Briefing about the programme, he said, “the Council and the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) are jointly supporting engineering, MTech, MSc, and MBA students to take up research projects in the area of biofuel / bioenergy. Under the 38th Series of Student Project Programme, KSCST and KSBDB had sent a poster consisting of thrust areas for students to take up project. The KSCST received 116 student project proposals (65 BE projects, 22 MTech projects, 21 MSc projects and 8 MBA projects) from various colleges across the state. A total of 59 projects (31 BE projects, 8 M.Tech projects, 15 MSc, projects and 5 MBA projects) have been supported under Biofuel area.”
“The exhibition will be inaugurated by IISc Deputy Director Prof Jayant M Modak.
Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi Vice Chancellor Dr H Maheshappa will be the chief guest. Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board and Hutti Gold Mines Company Limited Managing Director A K Monappa will be the guest of honour and will release SPP biofuel compendium. Prof M S Mohan Kumar, Secretary, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology will release a book on “Geographical Indicators of Karnataka.” The book contains GI of 90 products from Karnataka including Mysore silk, Mysore pak and so on,” he added.
Swamy, said “In the 38th series of SPP, 94 projects have been selected for the seminar. 35 projects are selected for seminar under Biofuel / Bioenergy area and 124 projects for exhibition. These seminars and exhibits will be evaluated by a panel of experts consisting of scientists and engineers from Indian Institute of Science and National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru and other research organisations. The best projects will be awarded. Phillips Research Principal Scientist Dr A Narendranath Udupa will deliver a technical lecture on ‘Control strategies for renewable (Solar) energy integration’ on August 21 at 10 am. The focus of the seminar and exhibition is not only to provide the forum for the students to showcase their work, but also to educate them on current developments in the field of engineering and technology,” he added.
Digitisation
The KSCST Executive Secretary said “the KSCST has started the process of digitising the project synopsis under student project programme. The project reports are scanned and uploaded in the website of the KSCST to help students. Accordingly, so far 1,02,000 pages of 1,500 projects from 37th to 32nd series of the SPP have been digitised. The digitisation will help students to refer earlier projects. Earlier, students from far away places had to visit KSCST in Bengaluru to refer the projects,”he stated.
Incubation centre
“Though the KSCST has supported over 7,500 projects, only 15 projects have been commercially developed so far in the last four decades. This includes colour mixing of silk threads, sisal fabrication machine and so on. “Many students after their studies end up with job and teachers get busy with their academic activities. To encourage students to come up with ideas and to commercially explore it, the department of science and technology of the union government, KSCST and Jain university will establish an incubation centre shortly.” Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management Principal Dr U M Bhushi was present.
