JOIN USInnovations galore at workshop
We are talking about the five-day workshop on “Qt Internals for Nokia Hand Held Devices” being held at the Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) in the city in association with Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and Nokia.
From developing cellphone applications for the visually challenged to applications to remind and alert terminally ill patients the medicines they need to take, the workshop is aimed at launching interest in research among students.
Take the case of Shashank Birardar and Vinay Patil of KLE College of Engineering Technology, Belgaum, who are developing a mobile application to assist visually challenged cellphone users. Their application provides an audio prompt for every button pressed on the cellphone.
Beaming with excitement about their project, Shashank remarked, “Developing this application was a fantastic experience. It will be uploaded on the internet so that others can use it too.”
Another project being developed is an ‘Instant Medicine Alert and SMS’ application by Hina, Honnala, Sudarshini and Supreetha of SJCE. Their application alerts health professionals and caretakers through an SMS, the time at which various medicines are to be provided to patients.
VTU e-Learning Centre, special officer, Dr T N Nagabhushan said that students are working on developing applications using open source operating systems for Nokia cellphones.
He said that this gives students an insight into practical aspects of programming. He said that prior to the workshop, students interacted with Prof Kirill Krinkin, Professor from the St Petersburg State Electrotechnical University, Russia, for 15 days explaining their ideas. During the past five days, they have implemented those ideas on the cellphones.
Earlier students used to simulate it on a personal computer and didn’t know how it works on a mobile. Now they get practical implementation experience. Further, after two months students are expected to provide new ideas. “A panel will select the best project and the students will get a chance to present their project at the Nokia Headquarters in Helsinki (Finland),” said Dr Nagabhushan.
SJCE Principal Dr B G Sangameshwara observed that the best outcome of the workshop is that it will create interest in research among undergraduate students. He said that the college is also planning a ‘Engineering Innovation Centre’ during the next five-six months for research development.