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EUREKA,
says new IIT Centre ...
EUREKA, says new IIT Centre as it prpares to give rein to the free and
the wacky.
by Shabnam Minwalla
Times of India - Wednesday, August 16,
2000
Copyright © 2000 Times of India,
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
MUMBAI: The tale of Archimedes and his bath-tub pops up in innumerable textbooks, as does the fact that James Watt invented the steam engine. But
while Indian students diligently cram the facts, they rarely imbibe the spirit behind these stories. Schools and colleges may have lost sight of
the `eureka' element in education -- but attempts are finally being made to rekindle a spirit of curiosity and discovery.
In the next month, IIT (Mumbai) will witness the birth of an unusual project - an Innovation Centre where students can run wild with their
imagination and experiments.``This will be a space where students can play
with ideas,'' says C. Amarnath, a professor with the mechanical engineering
department at IIT. ``If the basic concepts are sound, we wil give them funds and facilities to proceed with experimentation.''
Students will enjoy a fair amount of freedom, and wacky ideas are actively
encouraged. ``I am often amazed by these youngsters,'' says Mr Amarnath, who once told his class to imagine a train which went non-stop from Kalyan
to VT. ``They had to create a mechanism which would allow people to get in
and out at, say, Dadar while the train was still in motion. One fellow came up with an ingenious solution based on the functioning of a dot-matrix printer. Sometimes, all that these students need is someone to show
them a lollipop, give them an occasional whack and they will come up with fantastic solutions.''
Coincidentally, while Mr Amarnath was sitting in his Powai office and mulling over the lack of innovation in India, somebody else halfway across
the globe was thinking along similar lines. Raj Mashruwala, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was wondering how he could help his alma mater, not
just to sustain itself, but to move towards excellence.
"Indian educational institutes have never focused on creativity," says Mr
Mashruwala, a Class of '75 alumnus who recently gave a grant of $3.3 million to IIT (Powai). ``All my achievements are the result of pushing
back the boundaries of possibility. I felt that if I could even make a small contribution to the level of creativity, the money would be well
spent.'' When these dispersed players came together a couple of months ago, the idea of an Innovation Centre was born. ``We felt it was important
to provide the right atmosphere and facilities,'' says Mr Amarnath, who envisages a multi-disciplinary unit which will encourage creativity, hosts
competitions and interacts with industry.
Adds Rakesh Lal, a faculty member with the electrical engineering department, ``We, as a country, are churning out engineers who can't
design. In a world that is increasingly technological, we will remain non-competitive unless we create technology.''
Times of India - Wednesday, August 16, 2000 - Page 6.
Schools and colleges here are finally making attempts to rekindle the spirit of curiosity and discovery. In the next month IIT Bombay will
witness the birth of an unusual project - an Innovation Centre where students can run wild with their imagination and experiments.
The electrical engineering `project lab' -- which allows students to potter around at will -- has been running successfully for the past
decade.
But the Innovation Centre has broader aims. Says Raj Mashruwala a Silicon Valley enterpreneur, who hopes that it will one day rank alongside MIT's
legendary Media Labs, ``It should encourage faculty members to strive for new areas of research, to push the
administration to compete with the world's best universities. It should facilitate post graduate students to
conduct advanced research and, finally, it should provide facilities for undergraduate students to explore.''
While academics have always dabbled with innovations at the IITs, their efforts have rarely reached the market. But the new centre will offer
assistance with tedious tasks like patent searches and patent applications. Says M.V. Rane of the mechanical engineering department,
``At the moment I have at least six inventions under my belt. We have developed a technique to use the exhaust heat generated by vehicles for
airconditioning purposes. We are also working on a low-cost, low-maintenance solar drier which can be used by farmers to dry grain,
onions and tomatoes. Because the patent-application process is so lengthy,
we have not yet filed. But now we are banking on the Innovation Centre.''
Meanwhile, plans are afoot to establish an exclusive innovators' club for students who have already proved their creative metal. ``There will be
levels -- a sort of Yellow Belt and Black Belt -- to keep the students on their toes,'' says Mr Amarnath. Already, enthusiasm levels are high in
the classrooms and hostels. Post-graduate student Salil Bapat -- who is devising an attachment for powerlooms which will help them to become more
efficient -- is waiting anxiously for things to start moving. While Rohit
Ambekar, a third year engineering student, is all set to ``work on a new hydraulic arm''.
Says an excited Mr Amarnath, ``Sometimes I wonder if we are taking a risk. But then I tell myself, if even one of these guys eventually makes
an outstanding contribution, the centre will have justified its existence.''
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