Category Archives: Science & Technology

Indian youngster creates 3D printer for just Dh1,000

Kannur, KERALA :

supplied photo

The architecture sector tops the revenue generation for the 3D printing sector in the UAE.

Research shows that the UAE’s 3D printing market size is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.3 per cent between 2018 and 2024.

The architecture sector tops the revenue generation for the 3D printing sector in the country.

Binder jetting has been found to be the most widely used technology for architectural modelling.

Though 3D printers have been gaining popularity across the world, the price point has been a deterrent of sorts and more so in developing countries like India.

But Melvin George, 24, from Kannur in north Kerala, the southernmost Indian state, has come up with an innovative and inexpensive way of developing a 3D printer amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic that is evoking widespread enthusiasm in the UAE.

George, a guitar aficionado, who is pursuing a postgraduate degree in commerce, wanted to print out parts of the musical instrument, but found that a 3D printer at Dh7,500 was way too expensive for him to afford. This got his curious mind ticking: why not make a 3D printer all by himself?

“Though I had made a guitar out of wood, I was keen to use original parts of the musical instrument. Initially, I wanted to take a 3D printout, but later because of the prohibitive costs decided to make one on my own that proved to be quite a resounding success,” he told .

The Internet proved to be a great leveller as he learnt the tricks of the trade from available online resources.

He has been constantly upgrading his homegrown 3D printer, whose making charge is only Dh1,000 and still a work in progress.

For the uninitiated, 3D printing, or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional objects from a digital file using additive processes.

The maximum print size of a 3D printer is 120 centimetres (cm) x 83cm x 83cm.

So far, he has printed out figurines and showpieces besides parts of a guitar and its amplifier.

“I’m making my own polylactic acid (PLA), one of the key ingredients used in 3D printing, with corn. The PLA, which is industrially produced, uses additives and us ecologically harmful, but the homegrown stuff is 100 per cent biodegradable and safe,” he added.

George is into Western pop music and has fancied himself a lyricist since his high school days. And that’s where his penchant for playing guitar stems from.

His 3D printing innovation received a further boost from his uncle Byju Mathew, who works as an automation consultant in Australia.

“My self-learning skills have emboldened me to build India’s second concrete printed house.

I’ve even discovered a brand-new 3D printing kinematics, which will change the printing speed drastically. However, building a printer to those specifications will be more complicated, as parts for a printer like that exist. The future hinges on this concrete printer, which is in the works,” he added.

George’s homegrown technical skills, passion and a ready demand for 3D printing technology in the UAE and the wider region make him an ideal candidate to leave his native Kerala and make a dash for the Arabian Gulf nation, which is a home-away-home for an estimated over 60 per cent of the Indian expatriates.

Will George bite the bullet and come to the UAE soon on a hop, skip and jump fuelling an archetypal Malayalee’s Gulf dream?

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com

source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> Technology / by Joydeep Sen Gupta in New Delhi, July 11th, 2021

Lifetime award for Dr Thayil

Dr. George Thayil has been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions in the field of cardiology and for publishing awareness books for heart patients.

Thiruvananthapuram :  

Dr George Thayil has been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions in the field of cardiology and for publishing awareness books for heart patients. The award was presented by Education Minister C Raveendranath during the Onam celebrations jointly organised by the Tourism Department and Mangalam Publications in Thiruvananthapuram.

Dr Thayil is the founder head of the department of cardiology at Lourdes Hospital, Kochi. He has authored six heart disease awareness books. He has received 10 medical excellence awards and is the former state president of Indian College of Cardiology and Indian Academy o f Echocardiography

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / September 18th, 2019

MCH leads the way with a ‘dress bank’

Along the corridor adjacent to ward number 16 of the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, a box resembling a postbox is seen.

Members of the Rotary Club, Kowdiar, who donated the first set of clothes

Thiruvananthapuram :

Along the corridor adjacent toward number 16 of the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, a box resembling a postbox is seen. It is not a mere spectacle but serves a greater purpose. The initiative ‘Dress bank’ which was conceptualised by Health Minister K K Shailaja to provide new and clean clothes to patients admitted to the ICU or those without bystanders, has been garnering much attention. Contributions are flowing in abundance. 

After her recent visit to the Medical College, K K Shailaja examined the poor conditions and problems faced by the patients and bystanders. This triggered the idea. The project is being sponsored by the hospital employees and authorities including Dr Thomas Mathew, principal of Medical College Hospital and Dr M S Sharmad, superintendent.

Dr Mohan Roy, the regional medical officer (RMO), said, “We often get patients who have no bystanders and lack basic necessities. Their clothes are either torn or stained. So we considered installing a dress bank in the hospital which will be helpful to patients and bystanders in case of emergency. Dr Mohan Roy is the nodal officer for the project and Dr Sharmad is one of the sponsors associated with the Rotary Club, Kowdiar.  

By introducing a dress bank, the hospital employees and authorities believe the issue will be resolved to some extent. Dhotis, towels and nightwears are available at the dress bank installed at the Medical College. The first donation was made by the Rotary Club, Kowdiar. Two weeks since its launch, Dr Mohan opined that many organisations and individuals have come forward for the cause. To check the misuse of the facility, the clothes are given to the patients upon examining their economic background.

A register is being maintained and clothes are being distributed under the supervision of the head nurses and higher hospital authorities. The contributions can be made by the people by contacting the superintendent’s office at MCH. Mohan said, “We have received good feedback from everyone who have made generous contributions. We plan to add more dress banks.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / May 28th, 2019

Startups developed by Kochi-based Maker Village gain attention of defence organisations

Maker Village is a venture of the Kerala government to incubate startups focused on electronics and hardware production.

Kochi :

Startups incubated by Kochi-based Maker Village are gaining the attention of defence establishments as a high-level team of officials from Defence Production has decided to visit the incubator facility in the coming days. The move will give a thrust for startups in Kochi and elsewhere enter the defence ecosystem. Maker Village is a venture of the Kerala government to incubate startups focused on electronics and hardware production.

Ajay Kumar, secretary, Defence Production, Government of India, who was in Kochi, held a discussion with Maker Village CEO Prasad Balakrishnan Nair on Saturday. The discussions took place on the sidelines of the second edition of Hardtech 2019, a National Deeptech Startup Conclave organised by Maker Village.

Assuring that he will open the doors for startups to defence production, Ajay Kumar said the visiting team will comprise officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force. Earlier, addressing the gathering at the meet, Kumar said his office has, for the first time, been keenly watching startups for solutions of various kinds. “Startups are going to be an important part of our defence ecosystem. Users like the Army and Air Force want them to identify problems and seek ways to resolve them,” he said. 

He recalled a Defence India Startup Challenge the government launched last year received 520 outstanding proposals from new companies, much to the encouragement of the plan to leverage defence startups and connect them with the armed forces. “I want startups from Maker Village to feature in the list of next edition of the Defence India Startup Challenge,” he said. 

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / April 03rd, 2019

Patent holder of flexible road barrier seeks govt. support


The flexible road barrier with indicator developed by C.A. Vinayaram.   | Photo Credit: Spl

Vinayaram’s device holds potential to save motorists’ lives

The patent holder of a ‘flexible road barrier with indicator’, which holds immense potential to save the lives of motorists, has sought the help of experts and the government to popularise it.

C.A. Vinayaram, who hails from Mattancherry near here, won the patent for the device in 2016. He was allegedly given the cold shoulder by road safety experts in Kerala for the device that he painstakingly developed a decade ago.

It was an accident that led Mr. Vinayaram to work on such a device. In 2003, a car in which he was travelling rammed an unlit median while it was overtaking a tanker lorry in Kannur. It was a narrow escape, he said.

Mr. Vinayaram expressed shock at the plight of unscientifically-built medians — most of them not having even a reflector to warn motorists, claiming the lives of hundreds of people each year in India.

A tourist guide by profession, he knocked at the doors of agencies such as Thiruvananthapuram-based National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) and the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) for support.

A senior official of NATPAC said the innovation was good and had the potential to prevent accidents, since each unit of the flexible median has electricity or solar-powered LED on top to warn motorists.

Lack of funds

“It can even lessen the impact of an accident, since it mainly comprises a spring and is hence flexible. Sadly, the agency does not have the funds for conducting a field study. Hence, we referred it to Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, following which it was referred to a reputed government engineering college,” said the official.

The innovator is dejected that he is not in a position to manufacture the device in bulk, even when he is getting orders from many parts of India and abroad. “One of the agencies that I approached sought ₹10 lakh to do the field study, while another sought ₹2 lakh. I do not have that kind of money to spare. There are limits to what an individual can do. The government and road safety stakeholders must take steps to test and popularise such devices and also improvise on them if need be.”

Mr. Vinayaram said the idea was still in cold storage, though it was taken up with two Chief Ministers. In 2012, the late V.R. Krishna Iyer, who retired as judge of the Supreme Court, had written to the then Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court in this regard, urging that his letter be treated as a Public Interest Litigation since the device had the potential to save hundreds of lives each year.

Medians as deathtraps

Twenty persons died after an LPG tanker rammed an unscientific and ill-lit road median at Chala in Kannur in 2012.

The same year, a car in which actor Jagathy Sreekumar was travelling, hit a road median near Calicut University, in which he suffered serious injuries. Five powerlifters were killed and another critically injured after their car rammed a median on the Delhi-Haryana border in 2018.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by John L. Paul / Kochi – March 22nd, 2019

Braille guide, video brochure for Thenmala in Kerala

Barrier-free access for hearing and visually challenged to country’s first planned ecotourism destination

Visually challenged people reaching Thenmala, the country’s first planned ecotourism destination, will be provided with a visitor’s guide in Braille, the tactile writing system, from March.

For the aurally challenged, a video brochure with sign language has been incorporated as a separate corner in www.thenmalaecotourism. com, the official website of the Thenmala Ecotourism Promotion Society (TEPS) that manages the destination.

Mobile app

A mobile application, a guiding app that will briefly narrate the attractions of the destination, is also on the anvil. The 16-page Braille brochure has all information needed for a traveller.

The initiative is part of the efforts to encourage people with visual and hearing impairement to visit Thenmala.

It is also part of the barrier-free tourism project launched last year to make tourist destinations accessible to all visitors.

“This is the first time a Braille tourism brochure is being made available at a tourist destination in the State. The brochures will be provided to the visually challenged from the TEPS office,” Ecotourism Director and CEO of TEPS P.P. Pramod told The Hindu.

Students of Government School for the Blind, Vazhuthacaud, is behind the Braille brochure.

It is the outcome of a day trip organised for students as part of a CSR initiative. “We realised the constraints faced and requested them for solutions. The Braille brochure was the outcome,” he said. Students of Government VHSS for Deaf, Jagathy, came up with the video brochure with sign language after their visit.

For using the mobile application being launched on trial basis, the QR code will come in handy if the visitor does not have data connection. After getting the feedback, a complete version of the app will be rolled out by TEPS in IOS platform.

Along with this, Buddha Mayoori, which has been declared as the State butterfly, has got a special corner in the butterfly park.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by S. Anil Radhakrishnan / Thiruvananthapuram – February 27th, 2019

Five major IT projects launched

STADE with three companies on board set in motion

Thiruvananthapuram :

The State government on Wednesday set the ball rolling for five major IT projects, including the ambitious Space Technology Application Development Ecosystem (STADE) and the 2.5 million sq ft World Trade Centre (WTC) project of the Brigade Group.

STADE, a project of the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) supported by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, was launched with three companies on board.

Occupancy certificates

At a function chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, IT secretary M. Sivasankar handed over occupancy certificates to Indian companies SatSure, Bellatrix Aerospace and Agnikul.

STADE is aimed at promoting companies and start-ups that are into space data analytics and development of space-tech components.

According to the government, Airbus has agreed on an ‘ecosystem partnership’ with it for the STADE project. Talks are on with French space agency CNES and the European Space Agency (ESA) for establishing similar partnerships, the government said.

Technopark has signed an MoU with the Brigade Group for establishing the WTC, the second one in Kerala, in Technocity. Technopark CEO Hrishikesh Nair and M.R. Jaishankar, CMD, Brigade Group, signed the MoU.

The first WTC in Kerala was established at Infopark. Technopark has allotted 12 acres to build the 2.5 million sq ft WTC. The project is expected to generate employment for 15,000 people.

The government has inked an MoU with US-based Lumium for establishing a Design Innovation Centre here. KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath exchanged the MoU with Sreeni Sreenivasan, chairman and CEO of the design product firm.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the industry-backed, technology-enabled Skills Delivery Platform Kerala (SDPK). SDPK aims to bridge employability gaps and produce skilled workforce for the industry. Connecting 150 hi-tech classrooms in engineering colleges, SDPK will provide skills training to 40,000 students every year.

Swatantra launched

The Chief Minister also launched ‘Swatantra,’ billed as the world’s largest integrated free and open source facility in a government sector at the research and innovation centre of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS).

Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran presided over the function. IT secretary and Jayasankar Prasad, director, ICFOSS, also were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Thiruvananthapuram / February 27th, 2019

Non-beta-lactam plant inaugurated

To produce 158 types of medicines

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday inaugurated a non-beta-lactam plant at Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (KSDP).

According to officials, the new plant can produce 158 types of medicines needed for government hospitals. It can make 250 crore tablets, five crore capsules, 1.5 crore ORS packets and so on every year.

Industries Minister E.P. Jayarajan, who presided over the function, said that the LDF government had spent ₹50,000 crore on various development projects in the State. “The government will not allow pharmaceutical companies to loot the patients. Drug prices will be brought under control by increasing the production of medicines. The new plant will create 100 jobs,” Mr. Jayarajan said.

Rice parks

He said that the government would set up rice parks in Kuttanad, Palakkad and Thrissur.

Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac inaugurated work on a new non-beta-lactam injection plant. Dr. Isaac said that the production of medicines for the treatment of cancer would begin at KSDP next year.

Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran launched the distribution of free medicines to patients who have undergone organ transplantation.

KSDP chairman C.B. Chandrababu, U. Pratibha, MLA, district panchayat president G. Venugopal, District Collector S. Suhas, Planning Board member B. Ekbal and others spoke.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Alappuzha – February 25th, 2019

‘Spandanam’ bags best health project award

A dozen projects competed for the best public health project award in the meet, which was attended by leaders of various local self-governing bodies.

Thiruvananthapuram :

‘Spandanam’, an AYUSH-based public health project implemented by the Kozhikode district panchayat, was presented with the Best AYUSH Health Project award by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday.The project aims at treating autism and growth disabilities in kids.

The second prize was shared by Kattippara grama panchayat in Kozhikode for its ‘Harikiranam’ project for securing the health of tribals and Jyothirgamaya Balya, a project for kids’ health and safety by Nedumangad block panchayat.Also, the cancer awareness project named Vision 2019 by the Harippad block panchayat of Alappuzha district along with Santhwana Souhridham, a project implemented for the wellbeing of the tribal community in Meenangadi grama panchayat in Wayanad district, shared the consolation prizes.

A dozen projects competed for the best public health project award in the meet, which was attended by leaders of various local self-governing bodies.These projects were screened and selected from two zones each consisting of seven districts. Eight projects from Ayurveda and four projects from Homoeopathy were presented in the meet.

Sneha Sparsham, a palliative care project of Thrissur corporation, Navaneetham, a project meant for the school-going kids of Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat, Udayakiranam by the Idukki block panchayat and Snehadhara project were the eight projects that competed in the Ayurveda section.

Punarjani, a project seeking the possibilities of Homoeopathy in ailing cancer patients, women-friendly project Seethalayam by the Kannur district panchayat, Swasthyam project by the Kollam district panchayat were the different projects that competed in the Homeopathy section.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / February 20th, 2019

Mrinal which powered space dreams turns 50 today

VSSC to felicitate surviving members of Propellant Engineering Division team

February 21 marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark development in the history of the Indian space programme.

It was on this day in 1969 that the first composite solid rocket propellant developed by the fledgling Indian space establishment was flight-tested from Thumba, near here. An interesting element in what was otherwise a purely scientific enterprise was this: The propellant was christened ‘Mrinal’, reportedly after Mrinalini Sarabhai, the noted classical dancer and wife of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme.

Mrinal was developed by a team at the Propellant Engineering Division (PED) of the Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC), a precursor to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). At the time, the PED was headed by Vasant Gowarikar.

The VSSC plans to felicitate the surviving members of the PED team at a function on February 27.

Mrinal was significant in that it marked the space agency’s first major step in developing solid propellants, which are still used today in ISRO launch vehicles.

On February 21, 1969 the propellant was used to fly a Rohini series RH-75 sounding rocket, which was the designated Dynamic Test Vehicle (DTV), from Thumba.

Former members of the PED team which developed Mrinal such as K.N. Ninan and V.N. Krishnamoorthi remember that the February 21, 1969 test was a huge success.

“’It’s significance is that composite propellants form a class of propellants that are ideal for space launch vehicles. Mrinal was the first totally indigenous composite propellant manufactured using locally available raw materials,” Mr. Ninan, who retired as Deputy Director, VSSC, said. What was till then available were mostly double-base propellants suitable for missiles, Mr. Krishnamoorthi said.

Altogether, the DTV was test-flown thrice, but no records are available as to whether subsequent tests were carried out. Anyhow, the propellant itself was short-lived.

Mrinal did not find extensive use with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in later years due to scaling-up issues.

ISRO chairman K. Sivan is also scheduled to attend the February 27 function.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kerala / by Tiki Rajwi / Thiruvananthapuram – February 20th, 2019