'Prayog Vasant' in Hubballi too goes online

During the end or just after beginning of every spring season, teams involving students of different engineering branches used to demonstrate models they have prepared for problem solving using engineering design which they had learnt under 'Engineering exploration' in the first year BE course.

The lockdown, and the Covid-19 situation has changed everything, and it has not exempted even the annual 'Prayog Vasant' at KLE Technological University (KLETU) in Hubballi, which used to be an open-house project exhibition.

As a new norm, the KLETU (BVBCET) which has already conducted online theory classes for final year students. 'Prayog Vasant' was held on Thursday and Friday, which was available to view across the globe through digital platforms. Explanations, and making of various types of 3D models by teams of multidisciplinary engineering students can be viewed later too.

"We have to get adjusted to the new norm. At home, students prepared 3D models using computer simulation. The faculty concerned guided them and demonstrated. They watch videos and evaluate," said KLETU Vice-Chancellor Ashok Shettar.

19 themes

Two days of the online exhibition was divided into four sessions of three hours each, with a total of 19 themes. More than 700 students displayed 171 projects on different subjects. The faculty observing them could interact with them through video call also.

Automatic titrating robots, decoratives, land dwelling robots, floor cleaning robots, music robots, automatic winding machines, catering robots, drill bit dispensers, game machines, measurement tools, and self-balancing robots were the themes for the models on the first day.

The first theme of the first session on the second day (Friday) was 'Agri mechanisation'.

Compost making and dispensing machine, seed sowing machine, agri bot, compost mixing and dispensing, automated thresher, leafy vegetable harvester, seed sowing bot, seed sowing in tray, pesticide spraying machine, robotic arm for hydroponics, groundnut shell remover, and seed sowing in the pot were the models demonstrated by 49 students in 12 groups.

Models of ball launcher, carrom robot, drawing bot, note counting piggy bank, automatic tape dispenser, clay ball making machine, disc throwing machine, gaming machines, lead through programming, and robotic arm with 5DoF were also displayed online.

KLETU Centre for Engineering Education Research (CEER) head Gopalkrishna Joshi said, "teaching theory online is easy, but demonstrating model-making to all the members of the students' group is difficult. Different technologies were used for that, as students' team members were at different places. Some of them prepared a few models using available material. If laboratory was given for students for just a week, they would have prepared prototypes themselves," he noted.