The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : St. Joseph's engineering college students win design contest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 03, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

St. Joseph's engineering college students win design contest

Staff Reporter

They developed a prototype of an artificial limb The artificial limb ensures smooth as well as easy knee-joint movement

YOUNG INNOVATORS: (From left) R. Narayanan, E.Prakash and V.Prakash of St. Joseph's College of Engineering explain the prototype of an artificial limb designed by them. — PHOTO: V.GANESAN

CHENNAI: Three students of St. Joseph's College of Engineering received a cash award of Rs.50,000 for their prototype of an artificial limb, presented in the `National Level Engineering Students Design Contest'.

The contest, organised by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), was aimed at encouraging engineering students to design innovative products.

Organising secretary K. Chandrasekaran said the event was held to address the gap between education and industry, promoting design education and take students to the logical end of working prototypes.

He said 280 teams had registered. Twenty-six of them were asked to send a detailed proposal of their project, of which 16 were selected to make a presentation of their concepts.

Finally, seven were chosen to demonstrate their prototype. Five teams turned up and a panel of experts decided on the best projects.

Spirit of innovation

N. Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu , applauded the PDMA for its contribution to the nascent field.

He said that though the IT sector had generated enormous amount of foreign exchange, the manufacturing sector was equally important. Speaking on the need for shifting to avenues such as innovation and product development, he said,

"The spirit of innovation should be nurtured at college level."

E. Prakash, R. Narayanan and V. Prakash of St. Joseph's College designed an artificial limb, which ensures smooth and easy knee-joint movement.

Since they used bamboo instead of carbon fibre used normally, the cost was brought down significantly.

Students besides consulting practising orthopaedic surgeons, tried it on a patient, who acknowledged the stability and free movement it gave him.

They plan to take inputs from more patients to perfect their prototype and develop it into a product.

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