Over 60 innovative tech projects featured at IIT Madras CFI open house

IIT Madras Centre For Innovation (CFI)'s annual Open House' 2022 on Sunday featured over 60 innovative tech projects made by the students.

The event returned to a physical mode after a gap of two years and showcased autonomous vehicles, rockets besides the first-ever electric formula car from the institute made completely by the Student Team 'Raftar.' Further, for the first time, this edition was also made accessible on a Metaverse platform called Gather Town' to limited audience this year to highlight their innovations to other stakeholders not physically present. Over 1,500 people, including around 100 eminent industrialists and IIT Madras alumni, participated in-person with another 500 taking part virtually through Gather Town'. Speaking after inaugurating the event, Prof V Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, said this activity taken up by CFI provides not only a platform for young innovators to showcase their creations but also serves as a great source of inspiration for other young students to innovate. He launched the new CFI website: https://cfi.iitm.ac.in/ on the occasion. Numerous projects such as CFI Team Abhiyaan's autonomous vehicle called the Bolt,' Team Abhyuday's rocket, Team Avishkar's Hyperloop, a Sports Science and Analytics' Projects done in collaboration with Sports Science Centre of Excellence, IIT Madras, a Bird Diverter project undertaken in partnership with Wildlife Institute Of India, and projects on Blockchain Technology were hosted.

The event will also host numerous industry-proposed projects such as the Job Aggregator project with TMI Group and the Dental Implant Project. Prof Nilesh Vasa, Dean (Students), IIT Madras, Prof Prabhu Rajagopal, faculty advisor, CFI-IIT Madras, Prof Asokan Thondiyath, faculty advisor, Team Anveshak, CFI-IIT Madras, Dhanveerraj J M , student executive head, CFI-IIT Madras and Nitish Gupta, Co-Curricular Affairs Secretary, IIT Madras, spoke.

Some of the new initiatives at CFI include: creating the chennaiwaterlogging.org, a platform enabling public participation in Chennai region to improve disaster preparedness and response in communities and Team Abhiyaan, autonomous navigation team, which transformed an electric golf cart into an autonomous shuttle. Team Abhyuday, the rocketry team of IITM, successfully qualified in its maiden attempt for the finals of the Spaceport America Cup in June 2022 in New Mexico, USA. Team Abhyuday is the first-ever team across all IITs to qualify for this prestigious event. Raftar Formula Racing marked a significant new milestone by switching from combustion engines to electric engines this year, in line with the global call for sustainability in the automotive industry. They won the Overall Championship in the Electric Category at Formula Bharat Virtuals 21-22 held during October 2021.