Indians – based in India and abroad – have taken  three major prizes in  IEEE’s inaugural “Change the world”   competition for humanitarian endeavours in Science, technology and engineering, announced last week.

The $ 5000 distinguished student humanitarian award went to a team of 19 students guided  by Karthik Kulkarni, from B.V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering, Hubli, Karnataka state. The team was honoured for a suite of  electronic solutions  for  differently abled and  physically challenged children which included Walking Tutor, a leg exercising game aid and Chitra Vallari ( see  photo)  a visual aid to increase cognitive abilities. (http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/top-competitors/electronic-aids-physically-mentally-handicapped-children.html )

 

Nagendran Rajendran from Udumalpet, Tamil Nadu, won his own $ 1000 outstanding student humanitarian award for his Agrobot, an autonomous solar powered robot for sowing, spraying, weed removing, pest control etc. (http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/top-competitors/agrobot.html )

 

Sumit Pandey from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, another recipient of the $ 1000  outstanding student humanitarian awardwas honoured for Nidaan, an e-healthcare solution for the underprivileged.(http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/top-competitors/nidaan-healthcare-solution-under-privileged-needy.html )

Medford(MA, US )based Sampath Veeraraghavan’s Information System for human and health services   also bagged the $ 1000  student award. (http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/top-competitors/information-system-human-health-services-ishhs.html ) In addition it won the $ 500 People’s choice award.

The top award of $ 10,000 for Nanolab,a handheld diagnostic laboratory, went to Stanford University students Drew Hall and Richard Gaster (http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/top-competitors/nanolab-hand-held-diagnostic-labratory.html )

The full list of awardees can be found here: http://www.ieee125.org/change-the-world/

The IEEE is the world's largest technical professional association, with more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, including India.   The Change the World Competition is part of the global celebration of IEEE's 125th Anniversary.