The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Social commitment in innovations stressed

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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Social commitment in innovations stressed

Staff Reporter

— Photo: S. Gopakumar

INGENUITY: Actor Suresh Gopi tries out the specially designed scooter for those without hands.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Students in schools and colleges should be encouraged to conceive and execute socially relevant projects, actor Suresh Gopi said.

He was talking to presspersons at the Technopark Club on Friday after flagging off a scooter that can be driven by those who cannot use/do not have hands. The scooter has been designed by Sreejith S. Kumar, B. Adirbal, Isaac Stanley and Anit Murukesh, final-semester students of mechanical engineering at the NI College of Engineering, Kumaracoil, in Kanyakumari district.

Those who are physically or mentally challenged should not be made to feel disadvantaged. Specially designed gadgets can, to a large extent, ensure this. It is wrong to think that making children do projects would put extra stress on them, the actor said.

After flagging off the special scooter, Mr. Gopi watched as a member of the design team demonstrated how the vehicle is started, how the seat doubles as the steering and how it can be operated by manoeuvring the shoulders.

“I don’t think the team that designed this is looking to make a profit. They have done it as part of their social commitment,” Mr. Gopi said and added that it would be wonderful if some automobile company comes forward to manufacture this vehicle on a mass scale. It was the plight of a man who lost both his hands to a windmill in the Kumaracoil area that inspired the quartet to design a mode of transport for those who find themselves in a similar state. It took the team a year-and-a-half and Rs.45,000 to come up with the finished product.

“We have placed all controls – the accelerator, the clutch, the brake and the gear – in a manner that makes for easy operations by foot. We have also placed the horn, the indicator buttons and the on/off button in a feet-friendly position,” Mr. Sreejith said.

The team plans to apply for a patent for their special scooter that has a top speed of 40 kmph. It returns 40 km to the litre.

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