There are moments when you realise the prowess of science and value its significance in your life. Open House 2019 was one such day dedicated to the same. Growing bigger and better each year, the Open House has maintained its reputation of being a spectacle to behold.
On 20th April, curious and inquisitive students from schools across the capital flocked to the gates of IIT to witness some of the most interesting projects underway in the country. The projects, which covered varied practical applications of technology, left many spellbound.
The event started with an introductory video about the various achievements and successes of our Institute. This was followed by a special lecture by our very own Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director IIT Delhi, on Nanotechnology. Starting with what he feels an engineer is, he remarked that he does not see any difference between various branches of engineering and considers an engineer to be someone who uses science and technology to solve modern problems. He went on to deliver his lecture on nanotechnology, informing students about its various applications and scope in medical treatment. He concluded by saying that Nanotechnology combined with AI could change the future and though not easy, nanotechnology is fun.
The exhibition was held in the SIT building and the LHC from 10 AM until 3 PM, during which enthusiastic students listened to the projects on display.
The following is a brief description of some of the projects on display:
InNAV
Indoor navigation is challenging due to unavailability of GPS and complex indoor spaces arising from incremental building architecture. InNav contributes to inclusive service design to find your way in complex indoor environments and services like healthcare, transport terminals, offices or any other large public buildings. It is based on a building map annotated with navigation-related infrastructure and is capable of handling user related navigation queries to make an unknown building accessible.
ASTANITE – Mindful Homescreen
Nowadays, phones have become an indispensable part of our life and their usage has increased tremendously owing to social media and entertainment availability. Phones are the Y-gen addiction and to solve this problem, students of IIT Delhi have developed ASTANITE, an app that helps you reduce your usage of mobile phones. This app flags and hides apps that you don’t want to see frequently and reveals them only when you type their full name. It significantly helps reduce the distraction caused by them whenever you open our phone for other uses.
Assistant for Hearing-Impaired
This device aims to help identify and alert hearing-impaired individuals about certain sounds that may be indicators of danger through their mobile phones and a smart band. The Android application employs a tensor-flow model underlying which is a recurrent neural network (RNN) for classification. A fingerprinting algorithm, independent to RNN, is also employed to record sounds and identify similar sounds at a later stage.
3-D Woven Fabric
Although you might think otherwise, producing a thick fabric is a difficulty that has resisted a feasible solution till date. This project solves the problem of Delamination, as the 3-D fabric is integrated internally. The fabrics produced by this 3-D printer can be put to use in cruise ships as a replacement for heavy and dense metal.
Robo-Muse
A self-driven robot which can be used in warehouses and factories to transfer goods from one place to another. The robot takes the endpoints as the input and places the goods at the desired place. It is also capable of figuring the shortest path between two points on its own.
Human-Will Hijacker
Have you ever thought of getting hijacked and being worked at someone else’s will? A group of Biotechnology sophomores have used electrodes and pads to capture the signals of motor neurons in the hand and transfer it to the hand of another person. The project has used the analogy between action potential and electrode potential to build upon a novel concept.
The day concluded with awards being given to different projects under various categories.