Engineering students develop innovative devices

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, June 08, 2016: Reports from Udupi cite a media release saying that  final year Mechanical Engineering students of Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management, Bantakal, have developed novel and innovative technology.

Wrist health monitor : The students of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of the institute have developed a device (similar to wrist watch) that helps to monitor the body condition of an individual.

"We are now entering into an exciting new age of wearable technology. Wearable technology will help to record the day-to-day activities and also helps to monitor the patients," the institute of management.

This project involves a cost-effective health monitor and a protector, smartly designed as a wristband which measures many vital physical parameters, such as heart rate, body temperature, foot step count and a few more. The data is then recorded to an online server that can be accessed through any mobile device. It has a wide range of applications, including fitness, health care tracking and physiological research. This is a versatile system which does just not record data, but will also notify the necessary contact in case of an emergency along with the location of the user.

Mechanism : The device can be used for fitness, protection and 24X7 care of the elderly/ailing/injured. It consists of various modes of operation and the novel Red switch mechanism is a key feature, especially for women, who notify and sends a distress signal along with location to the selected contact during emergencies no matter what the device’s condition is. It is now completely a standalone and user-friendly device making it one of a kind in the current market of wearable devices. The students are planning to manufacture this device with some more features.

The project is developed by a team of five members Nikhil Acharya, Rayan Christ D’Souza, Rahul Kumar, Fervez Jaffer and Vishweshwara Sharma under the guidance of Nagaraja Rao, associate professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering of the institute.

Cashew processing  : Anup G Mendon, Jithendra Shetty, Prajwal Sherigar and Pranesh have developed this technology under the guidance of Raja Yateesh Yadav, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Cashew processing and drying are carried out in two stages in this machine. Primary drying is done in sunlight before dishelling and the secondary drying is done after deshelling to facilitate the peeling process. After the deshelling process, the moisture content in the cashew kernels will be about 15-20%. This moisture content must be reduced to 4-5% in the secondary drying. For this purpose, most of cashew industries use the steam generated from conventional energy sources. Here, the students have attempted to use solar energy for the secondary drying process. This technology uses infrared heaters powered by solar photovoltaic cells. The students have found appreciable results of this technology.

Currently an R&D Centre for Technology Upgradation of Cashew Processing Equipment, sponsored by Karnataka Council for Technological Upgradation, Bengaluru, is functioning in the department. This work is carried out by the students as a part of activities of the R&D centre and their final year academic project.