Addressing the shortage of ventilators in the country, the Bengaluru-based Reva University has launched ‘Jeeva Setu’ — an affordable medical ventilator.
According to Chancellor of Reva University P Shyama Raju, the ventilator is the university’s contribution to help the fight against coronavirus.
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to the scientific community to work on innovative modes of building scientific power and support, a team of faculty members at Reva University got together an affordable model of medical ventilator — Jeeva Setu.
The launch of Jeeva Setu proves the strength of the university and its capacity for innovation in a short period, the university officials said.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Top Bengaluru Stories / by DHNS, Bengaluru / April 28th, 2020
Students of KLE Technological University handing over an automatic sanitiser dispenser to KIMS Director Ramalinga Antaratani. | Photo Credit: Kiran Bakale
At a time when the use of sanitisers has become crucial, Hubballi-based engineering students have developed an automatic sanitiser dispenser unit to help those engaged in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Authorities emphasise using masks and social distancing to help fight the infection, but equally important is the use of sanitisers regularly.
However as holding the bottle of sanitiser itself has become a bit risky, the engineering students from KLE Technological University, Hubballi, have devised a simple technique to make it automatic.
Karthik V.R., Abhilash G., Vinayak, Praveen, Santosh and Abilash K. have designed the automatic sanitiser dispenser unit which is sensor-based.
The students said that as it would be difficult for doctors and nurses, serving in isolation wards to use the sanitiser without touching the bottle, they thought of developing an automatich dispenser.
As the new unit operates on sensor, the doctors and nurses will not have to touch or press it. They place their hand below the nozzle and the unit will automatically dispense a stipulated amount of the sanitiser, they said.
The students were guided by Ravi Guttal of KLE Technological University and S.V. Mulkimath of KIMS.
The students recently handed over the sanitiser unit to Director of KIMS Ramalingappa Antaratani for use at the KIMS isolation ward. Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar and Deputy Commisioner of Dharwad Deepa M. have lauded the students’ innovation.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Hubbali – May 02nd, 2020
At a time hospitals are overcrowded with patients getting tested for COIVD-19, there’s fear of contracting the virus right at the corridors of the hospital.
Bengaluru :
At a time hospitals are overcrowded with patients getting tested for COIVD-19, there’s fear of contracting the virus right at the corridors of the hospital. Six students from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) had the answer which got them the second prize at the recently-concluded CODE19 online hackathon. The 72-hour hackathon, revolving around the pandemic, was hosted by the Silicon Valley-based Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation. Jithin Sunny, Joel Jogy George, Rohan Rout, Rakshit Naidu, Megha Baid and Shivangi Shukla bagged $5,000 for their solution, TeleVital, which captures a patient’s vital statistics (heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature) remotely through a web cam and browser.
“After consulting doctors, we realised that vital statistics are the deciding factor if a patient needs hospitalisation,” says Sunny, adding that they built a system to check if a person is a virus carrier through their AI-based chatbot, which checks travel history and other symptoms.
The winning entry was of Abhinand C and Shilpa Rajeev from Government College of Engineering,Kannur, who bagged $10,000 for the idea involving a modern virtual classroom. Called iClassroom, it connects students with teachers through a social media-type interface. “It makes learning easier,” says Abhinand.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / April 28th, 2020
DreamWorks Makerspace at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management, Mangaluru has been manufacturing and delivering face-shields to help the frontline healthcare professionals fight against COVID-19.
They have delivered over 500 face-shields to Shivamogga Police on April 16. They have successfully delivered 2000+ face-shields since April 2 and are continuously working to cater to the requirements.
Face shields are an urgent requirement in the nation’s fight against COVID-19 in order to help scale manufacturing to meet needs. Face shields are a key piece of equipment for front-line healthcare workers operating in close contact with COVID-19 patients. These face shields can protect a healthcare professional and COVID warriors from exposure to droplets containing the virus expelled by patients when they cough or sneeze.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Campus Beat / by Media Release / April 19th, 2020
Dr Kala Yadav ML’s day in the hospital may wrap up by 6pm but the calls don’t stop pouring in until 10pm.
Dr Kala Yadav ML
Bengaluru :
Dr Kala Yadav ML’s day in the hospital may wrap up by 6 pm but the calls don’t stop pouring in until 10 pm. But as a frontline worker at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, which is a designated supervised isolation centre in the city, Yadav is no stranger to this tense pace of work.
Along with being in-charge of hospital infection control and biowaste management at the hospital, the 45-year-old is also a professor and in-charge of the microbiology department at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute.
“Nobody thinks of it but this is a major aspect of a COVID-19 hospital. If the waste disposed of is not treated beforehand, it could lead to a major infection, or community transmission even,” she says solemnly.
With Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital posing as the second standby hospital in the city, Yadav explains how the facility does 20-25 screenings a day.
Currently, staff members operate on three shifts, where once team is done with their duty for a week, they are quarantined for 14 days while the next team takes over.
“Everyone is worried. Some staff members even ask me to not assign them to COVID duty, so a rotational system works best. Each one of them is given adequate training,” she explains.
As in-charge of hospital infection control, Yadav’s job involves many things, including immunisation of staff, ensuring the premises are disinfected and preparing an infection control manual for everyone to follow. The task doesn’t get easier when she returns home.
“My two daughters are at my in-law’s place. Since they live in a joint family, I thought this would be better since they’d have the company of their cousins. This way, I can also isolate them and my other family members from me,” she says. But this doctor has managed to remain calm despite the gloom around her. “You don’t have time to think of this when you are in the thick of things,” she shares, adding that yoga and devotional music has come to her rescue in these times.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / April 13th, 2020
The social initiative led by Arun Isloor, professor and head of the department, was launched by NIT-K director K Uma Maheshwar Rao.
Hand sanitizers.(AFP file)
The chemistry department of National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NIT-K) here has started producing hand sanitizers in view of its shortage in the market after the coronavirus outbreak.
The social initiative led by Arun Isloor, professor and head of the department, was launched by NIT-K director K Uma Maheshwar Rao.
The raw materials needed for this product were provided by the institute.
It has plans to produce 5,000 bottles of sanitizer containing 70 mm each.
The sanitizers already manufactured were distributed to Suratkal police station, health department, petrol bunks and employees of NIT-K, including the security staff.
Isloor said the product has been manufactured conforming to high standards set by the World Health Organisation.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Education / by Press Trust of India, Mangaluru / April 04th, 2020
A benchtop test setup of a ventilator prototype being built by IISc scientists and volunteers at IISc’s High-Speed Wind Tunnel Complex.The prototype is created out of components from the Indian automotive and RO filter industry. The white canisters contain air and o2, which are mixed in the blue cylinder. The control circuitry is composed of PCL board and Raspberry Pi. The medical test lung is for experimentation testing only. (Photo courtesy IISc Project Praana Team)
As the clamour for medical ventilators reaches a fevered pitch amid the escalating COVID-19 crisis, a group of IISc scientists and students have been working night and day to develop a high-quality indigenous ventilator which makes use of sensors and parts sourced from the local automotive and RO water filter industries.
“The idea is to circumvent a shortfall of internationally imported components which are holding up the mass manufacture of ventilators in the country,” said Associate Professor Gaurab Banerjee of the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Electrical Communication Engineering Department, a brainchild behind the invention.
“In a worst-case scenario, about 0.006% of COVID-19 cases will require critical care with access to ventilators. For a population of 130 crores, this translates to about 70,000 patients,” he added.
The prototype is designed to make use of materials which are readily available in India and in large numbers such as pressure sensors used in cars and solenoid filter valves in Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filters.
According to the team, the plan is to take a pressurised mixture of medical-grade oxygen and compressed air, and mix it using food-grade containers and tubing found in domestic RO water filters. A programmable logic controller (PLC) board and a Raspberry Pi computer will control the air pressure, the oxygen composition and flow characteristics.
The challenges have been steep. At the heart of ventilator technologies are mass-flow sensors and controllers which accurately tell you (and control) how much oxygen is flowing through and what volume of oxygen the patient is inhaling in one breath. These are commonly imported from Switzerland.
The team said it has now duplicated that technology using automotive-grade sensors and solenoid valves by using basic principles of fluid mechanics and gas dynamics and has verified the results experimentally.
“By using these checks, we are able to work out what this oxygen concentration should be and what the flow rates are,” explained Associate Professor Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, of IISc’s Department of Aerospace Engineering who said that similar flow physics is at play in high-speed flight and rocketry.
The prototype, which has been in development for 14 days, is expected to be completed by the end of April. Professor Banerjee explained that the team has set itself five milestones before the prototype can be deemed complete.
“On Friday, we completed the second milestone, which was to combine pneumatics and an industrial controller to time-cycle air-flow,” he said.
Among those reportedly evincing interest in mass manufacturing the prototype is Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The team clarified that they were ready to transfer the technology free of cost to any interested parties.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Top Bengaluru Stories / by Akhil Kadidal / DHNS, Bengaluru / March 30th, 2020
Around 200 participants battled it out to build solutions to drive – Language Equality on the Indian Internet. The event was won by team “got_r00t” and “PMRY”. Read on to know more…
The main objective of the event was to build an ecosystem to drive language equality on the Indian Internet space. (Representational image)(HT file)
The Silicon Valley of India – Bengaluru on Saturday hosted RevHack 2020 – first Indian language based hackathon.
Around 200 participants battled it out to build solutions to drive – Language Equality on the Indian Internet. The event was won by team “got_r00t” and “PMRY”.
The hackathon was organised by Reverie Language Technologies and NASSCOM. The main objective of the event was to build an ecosystem to drive language equality on the Indian Internet space.
“India has a literacy rate of 69.1 per cent and only .01 per cent of Indic content is available on the Internet for consumption. While there will be 536 million language first digital users in India by 2021, there still is a long way to go for achieving ‘Language Equality on the Internet’,” said Arvind Pani, CEO and Co-founder of Reverie Language Technologies.
“With the first edition of #RevHack we look forward to inspiring coders, developers, and the student community to create innovative Indic language technology-based solutions so that the Internet can be truly accessible for all. Our regional language users can progress beyond browsing and India can realize the potential of the next 500 million users.”, he added.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Education / by Indo Asian News Service – Bengaluru (Karnataka) / January 19th, 2020
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shortlisted 358 high school students from across the country to be part of its second annual ‘catch them young’ programme, YuViKa.
The provisional list has 10 local students in the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) category. The final pool of over 100 ‘budding scientists’ from class 9 will be selected by March 31 and they will take part in a two-week residential awareness programme to be held in different ISRO centres from May 11 to 22, ISRO said.
The online selection process began in February with priority to applicants from government or aided schools in rural areas. The five girls and five boys shortlisted from Karnataka are from schools in Nipani, Challakere, Baindur, Holenarsipur, Bangarpet, and rural Mysuru.
Finally, three students from each State or UT and studying in CBSE, ICSE, and State streams will join the Yuva Vigyani Karyakram. Five additional seats are for pupils in the OCI category.
The programme includes invited talks, sharing of experiences by eminent scientists, visits to ISRO facilities and laboratories, discussions with experts, practical and feedback sessions.
Log into yuvika2020@isro.gov.infor details. YuViKa secretariat (Respond & AI) can be reached on 080 2217 2269.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / March 11th, 2020
Many of the meritorious students who bagged gold medals at the convocation of the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (UAHS), Shivamogga, on Saturday want to carve out careers in civil services as they believe it offers an excellent opportunity to bring about positive change in society.
Poornima Sajjan from Challakere, who was awarded two gold medals for emerging topper in B.Sc (Horticulture), is now pursuing M.Sc (Horticulture) and has also commenced preparations for the civil service exams. Darshan H.M. from Adichunchanagiri, who received two gold medals for his performance in B.Sc (Forestry), is now preparing for the Indian Forest Service (IFS) exam. He told The Hindu that as part of the course, he was involved in field work in Nagarahole and Anshi national parks. “I have also participated in tiger and elephant census. Conservation of forest and wildlife is necessary to maintain the ecological balance,” he said.
Mohammed Thamseer from Madikeri, who won two gold medals for his performance in B.Sc (Agriculture), is a good singer and has represented the university at many cultural festivals. At present, he is pursuing M.Sc (Agriculture) at Choudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University. Gayathri R., who was awarded four gold medals for her performance in B.Sc(Horticulture), is pursuing postgraduation in the same discipline. After the completion of the course, she wants to take up research on pests and fungal infections affecting vegetable crops.
Kavitha Hegde was awarded two gold medals for her Ph.D thesis on managing pest infections in potato crop. She hails from a family engaged in arecanut cultivation at Kodanamane in Sirsi taluk. She is now working as an agriculture officer in Tirthahalli taluk. “This year, arecanut crop in Tirthahalli taluk has witnessed many pest and fungal infections owing to climatic factors. As I hail from a family involved in arecanut cultivation, I can understand the problems faced by farmers. I will continue to work at the ground level to mitigate the problems faced by farmers,” she said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / Shivamogga – February 29th, 2020
