Students Innovator Programme (SIP)

As per the guidelines of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) for the SIP with +2 Zila School of Gaya and AIC-SMUTBI, the first online video conferencing was held on 8th August, 2019 at 2:00PM with the team at AIC-SMUTBI led by Dr Tejbanta Chingtham, CEO, SMUTBI and students of the ATL led Principal and ATL Teacher-In-charge (Dr. Devendra Singh), wherein the students explained the work being carried out (i.e, Water Conservation & Management Project) at the Atal Tinkering Lab of the school. The team of AIC-SMUTBI highlighted many points where improvisation is possible as well as attempted to understand the difficulties of the ATL in executing the projects of the students.

The students were also advised the next step forward. Periodically the project progress was monitored over phone and whatsapp as they were too far away to be physically present at the incubator. Due to some constraint from the student’s family as appraised by the school ATL in-charge, bootcamps could not be arranged early as the team comprises of 2 girl students and their parents were ready to send them only with a lady teacher and hence it could be finalized only after Dussehra holidays. By this time, it was way too late and the boot camp was combined with the product finalization and Business Pitch Design.

The Boot Camp cum Product Finalization was spanned out as per the details below:
Three Departments of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology joint together to extend all possible help to the students so that they understand the concept of the project and also bring about more clarity on their products. The HOD of Department of Mechanical Engineering (Prof Ruben Phipon) had personally supervised the progress of these students’ requirement including machining, welding of different metals, compressors, mass flow of refrigerant etc. Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Computer Science & Engineering extended support by providing access to their labs and Lab technician helping in ensuring the students understand the equipment required for completion of the project.

Boot Camp cum Product Finalization (30th October- 4th November)

Day 1 (Wednesday): The 6 members team from Zila School Gaya arrived for the Student Innovation program at AIC SMUTBI. The team has developed an Air Water Generator for providing Drinking water to the community which faces drought conditions throughout the year. The prototype developed had some problems related to design, operation and needed proper guidance to come with innovative solutions and make the product much more efficient. The team had a meeting with Dr Tejbanta Chingtham, CEO SMUTBI and discussed the various issues they were facing. This was followed by a session on understanding the business aspect of the product and how it could be commercialized and the importance of IPR on the product. The schedule for the next few days was decided so that the team could be introduced to Subject Matter Experts and get proper mentorship on the problems they were facing.

Day 2 (Thursday): The team was introduced to Dr P.K. Mahato, Assistant Professor Mechanical Engineering Department at SMIT who was the subject expert in Mechanical design, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Thermodynamics. He along with Mr Aman Kumar Business Development Executive at AIC SMUTBI helped the team understand the technicalities of the product and the concepts related to the product they were building.

The mentor helped the team clear doubts about the calculations which they require to calculate the efficiency of the Compressor, the mass flow rate of refrigerant and other issues which they were facing. He helped them by introducing them with concepts of Psychometric Chart and how to get different data associated with the ambient conditions using the chart, thermodynamics, refrigeration cycle, selection of refrigerants, design changes which needed to be made for improving the efficiency of the product. This was followed by a practical session in the lab where the team was introduced to the actual working of the refrigeration cycle and what parameters are required and how different components function. The team cleared their doubts about how to use relay with the compressor and how the machine and the compressor needs to have different switches for proper operation of the product. This was one of the design fault in the product and were informed to change it accordingly.

Day 3 (Friday): This day was more of a technical training session for the team where they learned to Weld and had a hands-on training on different types of welding. Mr Chandan Lab Assistant Mechanical Engineering Department of SMIT assisted the team and helped them with proper welding techniques of two different metal, a problem which the team had been facing earlier. Moreover, he introduced them with different types of machines and machining practices and how to operate them. They were given insights about the working of lathe, power hacksaw, slot cutting machine, drilling machine, milling machine and how different types of material behave during machining. This helped the team in understanding and choosing the right materials which would be required in constructing the product.

In the second half, Prof Tejbanta Chingtham introduced the team to the concepts of different programming language and how they came into existence and what impact this programming languages have in the current technologies which are present. The team was then taught about how to write programs using C and C++ and how it can be used in Arduino programming and operating other programming boards for helping in automation of the product.

This was followed by the felicitation of the team as per the local tradition. 

Day 4 (Saturday): The team was helped by Mr Aman Kumar in preparing a business plan and how to present their ideas. The team worked on product refinement and what necessary changes are needed to be made in the prototype to increase the efficiency of the product. They were also given an introduction to Arduino, 3D printer and how to operate different design softwares.

Day 5 (Sunday) : A day tour of Gangtok and nearby place was arranged for the visiting team of ATL +2 Zila School of Gaya. They has some good memories of the place as they admired the scenic beauty as well as saw some of the exotic places in Sikkim as per their feedback.
Day 6 (Monday) : After breakfast, AIC-SMUTBI arranged a vehicle to reach the team of ATL +2 Zila School Gaya to proceeded to NJP (Siliguri) for their onward journey to their hometown.