EXCITE 2016, a five-week product engineering & entrepreneurship program focused on market centered IoT/Smart City solutions concludes
Author(s): City Air NewsEXCITE--A snapshot of concluding ceremony of EXCITE. photo: city air news Hyderabad, July 3, 2016: The second edition of EXCITE, a five week summer workshop/internship program aimed at product engineering, innovation...
Hyderabad, July 3, 2016: The second edition of EXCITE, a five week summer workshop/internship program aimed at product engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship concluded here in city on Saturday at JNTU, Hyderabad.
The program which kicked off on 27th May concluded Saturday evening.
Dr. ShailajaRamiyer, The Vice Chancellor of JNTU; Mr. Sujiv Nair Chief Executive Officer of Task; Mr. RangaPothula, President of HYSEA and Mr. Ramesh Loganathan, Immediate Past President of HYSEA, Dr. Goverdhan, Principal - JNTU Hyderabad, Pankaj Diwan, Founder-Idealabs graced the valedictory function held in UGC Hall in JNTU Hyderabad Campus.
Speaking on the occasion DR. Sahilaja Ramiyer told students to add creativity to their Technical skills. You need to keep experimenting. Experimenting is the only way to move forward. We all will be with you in your journey, she said.
It is a joint initiative of HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association), JNTU and Task (Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge).
In the words of Ranga Pothula, President of HYSEA, “the EXCITE Workshop is very unique in the sense that it brings together academia and industry. With their combined strength, students not only get good subject knowledge, but, good practical exposure, which is need of the hour”.
The main objective of EXCITE program was to get an industry intervention to build appreciation for products and product engineering, and thus improve the quality of engineering graduates across the state by motivating them to explore new technologies.
This five-week program saw more than 50 Industry mentors including Domain Experts, CEOs /Founders of startups, Innovatorsand Product Managers from leading companies. It was very inspiring to have Prof Anil K Gupta from National Innovation Foundation interact and endorse EXCITE participants.
The program covered various aspects of product development starting from market need identification, business opportunity validation, design thinking, technology design, engineering the solution and making product pitch presentations. Students worked in teams and built the first prototype of the product idea.
EXCITE 2016 had a participation of 270 students from 30 colleges. During these five weeks, 90 product prototypes in Internet of Things(IoT)/ Android have been successfully created by students. Some of the product ideas include EmojiPot, a plant sharing emotions based on moisture; Vaccimo, a box for monitoring temperature for vaccines; I-Toy, that helps parents to monitor and interact with kids from anywhere; A saline Monitoring and alert system; Patrolling Drone and smart comb that detects and tracks hair fall etc.
The organizers of the EXCITE plan to support over next 12 months the 90 products that came out of excite 2016.The top 10 teams will be given seed funding in addition to EXCITE Fellowship under which a very proactive mentoring support will be provided to make the product commercially viable.
The first edition of EXCITE held in 2015 had 225 students formed into 75 teams from 25 colleges. It ignited a change in culture with students participating in several hackathons. Solution of three teams was adopted by Industry including one getting a funding from a German company. The placement track record of the EXCITE 2015 batch has been very encouraging with a good number of students getting placed in product development companies and Startups. The maximum salary of EXCITE 2015 batch drew was Rs 9lakh and more than 7 students bagged a package of more than Rs 5lakh. This is huge jump in salaries of the students in their respective colleges. A host of companies have appreciated the initiative and have shared their willingness to consider EXCITE students for internships and placements for current and future EXCITE participants.
The success of EXCITE program lead to the launch of Maker Space initiative where structured activities are being conducted round the year on the lines of EXCITE on college campus. As a pilot, 12 colleges were chosen for setting up Maker Space with a prescribed inventory comprising of latest IoT devices and sensors. In the MakerSpace program, students undergo a year-long learning with workshops and hackathons thus having an edge over others. A group of students from a maker space college recently won the NASSCOM Product Conclave award for best student team.
Based on the overwhelming success of EXCITE 2016, it is proposed to have Maker Space concept extend to about 40 colleges and also extend the second version of Maker Space 2.0 as a continuation in final year.