In the first week of May, L&T Technology Services (LTTS) announced the successful conclusion of the 5th Edition of its widely acclaimed annual academia-industry collaboration and innovation initiative, TECHgium. Launched in 2016, TECHgium is an India-wide open innovation challenge that provides students an opportunity to work on major engineering challenges being faced by the industry. The primary objective of the initiative is to ignite young minds and provide exposure to real challenges faced by the global industry. Through this platform, students will get an invaluable opportunity to work on futuristic technologies and augment the LTTS solution development team, while getting recognized as a TECHgium innovator. Over the years, TECHgium has emerged as one of the most sought-after forums for engineering students passionate about pursuing an innovation-driven career in the global engineering and technology services domain. The 5th edition saw 30,421 students, from 444 reputed engineering institutes across India, competing for the top spot.
G. Ganapathiraman, Country Manager, ARC Advisory Group, India was one of the jury members for project evaluation.
The Finalists
The finalists presented PoCs on several breakthrough innovations, involving cutting edge technology trends, such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, renewable energy, drone technology, compute vision, and EV batteries among others. Some of the concepts showcased were based on drone supervisors, EV battery optimization, hover-drones with dynamic charging via wireless power transfer, easy to attach IoT crane box, self-cleaning solar panels, end-to-end fully automatic deep learning algorithm for scientific document denoising, solar tracking system for efficient power generation using image processing, and automated payment mechanism for contractual agreements.
Project Winners: Breakthrough Innovations via Academia-Industry Collaboration
The team from Indian Institute of Information Technology Design & Manufacturing Jabalpur, were declared winners of the 5th Edition of TECHgium for creating a prototype of an easy to attach IoT crane box.
The first runners up were students from IIT Roorkee for their solution on self-cleaning solar panels.
The second runners up were IIT Guwahati, for their concept on hover-drone with dynamic charging via wireless power transfer.
A Special Jury Award was given to the students from Bannari Amman Institute of Technology for their concept on end-to-end fully automatic deep learning algorithm for scientific document denoising.
Students’ Voice
Students from Indian Institute of Information Technology Design & Manufacturing, Jabalpur said that participating in TECHgium has been a significant learning experience for the entire team. They were happy that their concept of an IoT-enabled crane box was appreciated, grateful for the insights provided by the esteemed jury panel, and to LTTS for this fantastic opportunity.
Students from IIT Roorkee said that it has been an exciting journey. The problem statements challenged them to push their frontiers and successfully design a self-cleaning solar panel prototype; the learnings gathered have been both transformational and inspirational.
Last Word
Amit Chadha, CEO & Managing Director, LTTS said that the transition from academic life to corporate world often requires one to have an adequate exposure and knowledge of real-world problems faced by businesses the world over. It is only through such opportunities and early-stage learning initiatives that engineering students can be inspired to embrace innovation-led digital engineering roles and drive the future of technology. LTTS’ TECHgium is a key enabler in this direction, empowering young engineers and students to prepare for a robust, resilient, and world-class career trajectory.