By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 21 Nov: Apart from imparting industry focused and domain specific education, UPES is also promoting research at the undergraduate level. School of Engineering, School of Computer Science, School of Design Studies & School of Planning in UPES joined hands in 2015 to successfully launch a dedicated programme named ‘Research Initiatives for Students of Engineering’ (RISE).
Arun Dhand, Senior Director, UPES states that, every year, ideas and concepts submitted by the students undergo a first level screening before being shortlisted for seed funding. All the chosen projects are thereafter given seed funding and a free hand in choosing their faculty mentor. Thereafter, they go through a three-phased evaluation cycle at various stages of the project before they get shortlisted for the finals. The final contestants are then invited to display their project at the annual exhibition where external subject matter experts and industry experts evaluate them.
According to Dr Shailey Singhal, Professor in College of Engineering and the Chairperson of ‘RISE’, this was the fourth cycle of “RISE” and that this year a total of 263 research ideas were submitted by the undergraduate and post graduate students in all the disciplines, which included energy, electronics, electrical, mechanical, chemical, petroleum, civil, automotive, software, drilling, and health & safety. A total of 41 ideas were shortlisted and carried forward for seed funding by a panel of internal subject matter experts. Out of these, 39 were fresh ideas and 2 were extensions of previously shortlisted projects. Approximately Rs 8.5 lakhs were distributed as seed money among the 41 projects. Only 22 projects got shortlisted during the pre-final round held last month and were selected for the final competition, and were exhibited during the finals.
The three member panel of external judges for the final round included Dr DS Khatri, Director, Vembsys Technovation from Gurgaon; Dr Prasun Gupta, Scientist D, IIRS, Dehradun, and Dr Neeraj Atrey, Principal Scientist, IIP, Dehradun. The panel of judges, while taking keen interest in all the exhibited projects, also gave valuable insights and suggestions to the students in improving their respective projects. A total of 8 prizes were presented, including 5 consolation prizes. The first prize was given to the team of Shanmathi Sridharan and Himanshi Dhawan under the mentorship of Debajyoti Bose for their project, titled “Enhanced Activated Carbon Cathode for Double Chambered Microbial Fuel Cell using low cost Polyvinylidene Fluoride Binder for improved System Stability and Power”; the second prize was claimed by the team comprising Nishi Khetwal, Basant Singh Bhaskar & Udayveer Mittal under the mentorship of Vivek Kaundal for their project on “ Solar assisted cloud enabled intelligent mini-refrigerator”; while the third prize went to the team of K Bhavish Kumar Reddy, B Vishal Manikandan and Praveen Kumar under the mentorship of Dr P Vijay for their project on “ Process Design and Optimisation of Nickel Recovery, Separation and Valorisation from Blister Copper Anode Refinery Effluents”.
Speaking at the exhibition, Dr Deependra Jha, Vice Chancellor UPES shared that the “RISE” initiative of UPES has already given healthy dividends by way of 14 Patents, 22 Research Publications apart from 10 students getting recognised and awarded at various national platforms for their innovations.
The final exhibition also saw the presence of Dr Kamal Bansal, Dean-Academic Development & Innovation; Dr Suresh Kumar-Director, School of Engineering Studies; Dr Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Associate Dean – Applied Sciences & Humanities, accompanied by Dr Pankaj Kumar, Dr Piyush Kuchhal, Dr SK Joshi, Dr PK Mishra, Dr Anuj Kumar, Dr Shefali Arora, Dr Shilpi Aggarwal, Dr Kamalpreet Kaur, Dr Hitesh Sharma, Dr Manjeet Singh, Dr Deepak Kumar, Vinay Chowdhary and Dr Ajeet Nigam.
