An incubation project developed by students of Aditya Institute of Technology and Management (AITAM) in Tekkali to monitor air pollution has caught the attention of several institutions in the country and abroad.
The students, Sandeep Battula, K. Pavan Kumar and Santosh Kumar Panda, established Qualivon Technologies Private Limited, a start-up in the incubation centre at AITAM College, during their final year of engineering. The students concentrated on nanotechnology-based Photonic Integrated Chips production to monitor industrial air emissions.
According to them, there is no exact equipment either with the industries or with governments to measure the exact quantity of emissions.
“It has become a challenge for industries as well as for governments to take action to minimise the impact of pollution. The chips developed by us will enable industries to know the exact emissions generated by different machines and equipment. As many as 15 gaseous molecules and their quantity can be observed perfectly with the insertion of the chips in the devices meant to monitor the air pollution,” they said.
IIIT-Hyderabad has initially encouraged the start-up with a pre-seed fund of ₹3 lakh, and the Indian Institute of Sciences in Bengaluru sanctioned ₹20 lakh fund. Now, they have got budgetary support of around ₹2 crore from Thuringia Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society of Germany.
Under Digital Innovation Hub for Photonics Programme, the three students have been invited to conduct research for six months at Fraunhofer-IOF Research Institute located at Jena City in Germany. AITAM college director V.V. Nageswara Rao and placement officer M.N.V.S.S. Kumar felicitated the students for inspiring many youngsters with their project. Speaking to The Hindu, Dr. Nageswara Rao said that the college management was encouraging students to concentrate on research and innovation from the first year itself by providing all the facilities at the incubation centre.
The students said that their project won many awards in the competitions conducted by various institutions including US Consulate-Kolkata, BITS-Pilani, and LIGENTEC-SA of Switzerland.
“Air pollution is a huge problem for India as well as other developing countries worldwide. Reduction of emissions in a systematic manner will improve the quality of life for people living close to industries,” Mr. Sandeep said.
