Clinical trials to digitising supply chain: Students’ smart push to biz

BRIGHT MINDS AT WORK Submit tech-based solutions at Matunga management college’s event

MUMBAI: From tracking products in a supply chain to screening candidates for clinical trials accurately, college students across Mumbai have come up with technology-driven ideas to improve businesses.

The solutions were submitted at the recently held Smart India Hackathon at Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WIMDR), Matunga recently. Participants said they learnt a great deal about developing solutions in such a short span.

A team of students from Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College, Chembur, developed a computer programme that can speed up the process for testing medicines before their launch.

The programme uses an algorithm to match the people who are willing to volunteer for a clinical trial. It analyses factors such as a volunteer’s medical history, type of trial, number of trials and their success rate.

“People are reluctant to participate in clinical trials because of the side-effects. Our goal was to increase participation and generate better results from laboratosaid Viraj Modi, one of the students.

Teams from WIMDR and Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT), Kurla, worked towards digitising supply chain managesystem. They suggested using barcodes and QR codes on products to track them by manufacturers, retailers and suppliers.

“Recently, a company wanted to recall products from a particuries,” lar batch after detecting a defect in them. But there was no mechanism to trace the products from the defective batch,” said Roshan James, a student from DBIT.

“The current system of returnment ing expired products by retailers to companies is manual and slow,” said Vipul Bhole, a student from WIMDR.

Another team from WIMDR proposed enhancement of customer experience at large retail shops. It suggested 3D hologram promotion of various products at the stores. The team also proposed installing a touch screen to provide information about various products.

Source: Hindustan Times dated 11 March, 2019

Congratulations Silicon Tribe (SFIT Team) for winning SIH 2019!

Project and Research Help for Faculty and Students of Engineering

VISIT

https://sfitlibrary.blogspot.com/p/project-and-research-help-for.html

Shodhganga: a reservoir of Indian Theses @ INFLIBNET

Research: The word itself implies RE-SEARCH i.e. rebuild, refine and enhance.
Search if it is guided in a proper direction yields fruitful results. As said earlier, to build upon, we need a strong foundation of the already existing literature.

Here's to the first dip in literature - the building blocks

1) Shodhganga

The Shodhganga@INFLIBNET Centre provides a platform for research students to deposit their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire scholarly community in open access. The repository has the ability to capture, index, store, disseminate and preserve ETDs submitted by the researcher.

Information Source: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/118553 (Accessed on 7 March, 2019)

EU, India to step up cooperation in research and innovation

India and the European Union will step up cooperation in research and innovation, according to a statement.

On areas for future cooperation, health research and bio-economy will remain high on the agenda, it said.

Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General of Research and Innovation, European Commission, co-chaired the 12th EU-India Joint Steering Committee meeting on science and technology along with Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary of DST, here according to an official statement.

India and the EU will step up cooperation in research and innovation, Paquet said here.

To build upon the robust cooperation of the past 20 years, the EU and India intend to renew the India-EU Science and Technology Agreement for another five years, the statement said.

It was also agreed to explore new areas of cooperation to fill the knowledge gap on climate change, on renewable energy in line with Mission Innovation aiming at reducing CO2 through concentrated efforts on energy.

On artificial intelligence, importance of ethical standards was stressed, the statement said.

The EU and India acknowledged their excellent cooperation which was recently boosted by the launch of seven India-EU projects on purification of water and waste water treatment, two on vaccines and one on polar sciences, it said.

Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/eu-india-to-step-up-cooperation-in-research-and-innovation/article26447711.ece (Accessed on 7 March, 2019)

Coming soon: the Indian museum of natural history

Jurassic find: An excavated ichthyosaur fossil found near Lodai village in Kutch district of Gujarat in 2017.   | Photo Credit: HANDOUT

It will house the country’s geological wealth in one location

From dinosaur fossils to pre-human skulls, India is home to a vast treasury of geological and palaeontological specimens that contain a wealth of scientific information about the planet and its history. But these rare specimens are scattered in different labs all over the country. So, to better conserve this prehistoric heritage, the government is planning to house them in one place — an ‘Earth Museum’.

This museum will be modelled on the American Museum of Natural History, or the Smithsonian museum in the U.S. The museum, which will be set up as a public-private partnership, would be located somewhere in Delhi, Noida or Gurugram, said G.V.R Prasad, head of the Department of Geology, University of Delhi.

K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Prime Minister, said at a press conference on Wednesday that such a repository was necessary to make people aware of India’s palaeontological and geological wealth. “There is a lot of history here, but somehow it hasn’t been communicated well,” he said. Another concern, he added, was that several collections of fossils and important geological specimens weren’t properly organised, and they survived only due to the efforts of individual researchers who maintained them within their labs. A single site, accessible to the public as well as researchers wanting to investigate rare and important finds, was necessary, Mr. VijayRaghavan said.

The PSA led a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) last November, where the need for such a museum was endorsed. A meeting of experts from the U.S., the U.K, and South Korea is scheduled to be held in Delhi in early April, Mr. Prasad told The Hindu.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coming-soon-the-indian-museum-of-natural-history/article26450838.ece (Accessed on 7 March, 2019)

ISRO space education programme for school students

The selection will be based on the academic performance and extracurricular activities.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched from this year a ‘Young Scientist Programme’.

Called ‘YUva VIgyani KAryakram’, the Programme aims to impart basic knowledge on space technology, space science and space applications to youngsters to arouse their interest in this emerging area.

ISRO has chalked out this programme to “Catch them young”. The residential training programme will run for two weeks during the summer holidays. Three students from each State/Union Territory will be selected to participate in this programme every year. Those who have finished VIII standard and are in IX standard will be eligible.

The selection will be based on the academic performance and extracurricular activities. Students belonging to the rural area will get a special weightage. ISRO is in touch with Chief Secretaries of States/UTs, and the list of selected candidates is expected by the March end.

Source: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/isro-space-education-programme-for-school-students/article26431523.ece (Accessed on 7 March, 2019)