Daily Archives: June 7, 2018

District wins award for green protocol

The district administration has been awarded for taking steps to reduce plastic waste. Sujith Karun, district co-ordinator of Haritha Keralam Mission, received the award from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on behalf of the district collector in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

At the function, awards were given to 21 institutions from Ernakulam district for activities aimed at reducing plastic. The office of the Panchayat Deputy Director, Thiruvairanikulam temple committee, SCMS Engineering College, NSS technical cell, Thurithikkara Urja Nirmala Harithagramam, and the Society for Teresians for Environment Protection, were among the institutions that won the award.

The festival at Thiruvairanikulam temple, Malayattoor pilgrimage, Aluva Sivarathri, Edappally church festival, and Moothakunnam festival were among those that followed the green protocol. Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste were segregated during these festivals and plastics were sent for recycling.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Kochi – June 07th, 2018

IESA impressed by Maker Village

The Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) has offered to provide mentorship to entrepreneurs operating out of Kalamassery-based Maker Village while evincing interest in having a tie-up with the facility.

The organisation has also volunteered to extend help in promoting the products of companies being incubated out of the facility.

IESA proposes to set up a branch office in the State to facilitate these assistances and most probably the organisation would opt for Kochi, a release issued here quoted Anilkumar Muniswami, Chairman, Executive Council, IESA, as saying. He hinted at such a prospect after visiting Maker Village at Kinfra Park, Kalamassery, along with other committee members on Wednesday.

“The biggest value we can bring to Maker Village is to take product of the companies from incubation stage to commercialisation. We want to have a tie-up with Maker Village and see that all these start-up kind of companies will mature and their products are identified by the industry leaders, so that they get the right kind of funding for commercial purpose,” he said.

Mr. Muniswami hailed the functioning of Maker Village, which he said, is doing a tremendous job in association with the State government by offering facilities at par with the incubation labs in big ticket players like Japan, Taiwan and Sweden.

Madhav Nambiar, Chairman, Maker Village, said the visit of the Executive Committee members would help understand what IESA can do and how the Maker Village incubatees can closely work with the Bengaluru hardware ecosystem to move to the next level.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Kochi – June 06th, 2018

Engineering students develop robotic arm

Students of Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, Arakunnam, with the Electromyography-controlled prosthetic arm that they developed.

It will meet the basic daily requirements of an amputee

Five engineering students of Toc H Institute of Science  and Technology at Arakunnam near here have come up with an Electromyography (EMG) controlled prosthetic arm.

The students – Mereena Baby, Aysha Zenab Kenza, Nikitha Sajan, Lakshmi Mohan, and Sharon Alex – are in the final year of their B.Tech Computer Science programme.

A release issued by the college claimed that the robotic arm would meet the basic daily requirements of an amputee, even though it lacked advanced features.

The prosthetic arm is priced at ₹2 lakh while those with advanced features cost anywhere between ₹15 lakh to ₹25 lakh, which is out of the reach of the common man, it said.

The students said that the Myo-armband interprets the electric signals produced as a result of the muscle movements and converts them into accurate hand gestures. They are then read by a micro-controller through a Bluetooth dongle.

Server motors

Based on those signals read, an appropriate number of server motors are rotated to move the prosthetic limb, they said.

The release said that the product could be made faster and easier by using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.

The students expressed the hope that they would get support from investors to take the product to users.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / June 03rd, 2018