PES University, which unveiled some of its research done by students and faculty on Wednesday, announced setting up of a new research park on their Bangalore South campus, near Electronics City. M.R. Doreswamy, Chancellor of the PES University, said the park, spread across 48,000 sq. ft, will be inaugurated by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on January 7. Vice-Chancellor K.N. Balasubramanya Murthy said the park would incubate prototypes and later help students and faculty members make their products and ideas commercial. Some interesting prototypes displayed were:

Wireless underwater battery charger

A prototype of a wireless charging system for underwater vehicles has now caught national attention. “For charging batteries underground, one has to retract the vehicles out of the water to replace it with charged batteries or deliver power through longer cables underwater. This prototype reduces manual intervention and can be used in maritime systems,” V. Krishnamurthy, Registrar of PES University, said.

This plant can manufacture biodiesel from used edible vegetable oil. The students have tested this fuel with commercial diesel used in college buses and to heat water for hostel students. Mufassira Rahman, a third year biotechnology student, who was involved in the project, said the plant manufactures 70 litres of biodisel a day. She is now trying to work on how the system can be optimised.

Vermi-compost plant

The huge amount of leaves that trees shed have inspired students of the varsity and their mentor to set up a vermi-compost plant to convert it into manure. The plant has a capacity to manufacture one tonne of compost a week. This manure is sufficient for the plants and the nursery on campus.

Pebrine solution

While silkworms produce silk yarn, pebrine spores obstruct the process and is the bane of silkworm rearing farmers. The students have come out with a unique solution, which is a mix of several chemical ingredients that keeps the spores intact without their structure getting modified. The university has been doing field work in Jharkhand on sericulture. The Central Silk Board has also expressed interest in working with them.

Bags project

After development of two satellites, PES University has bagged Sindhu Netra, a project of Research Centre Imarat Hyderabad that is part of the DRDO in which a 10 kg nano satellite is to be developed.

K.N. Balasubramanya Murthy said this project would help identify suspicious ships through imaging satellite.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru -December 29th, 2016