Mumbai: Tinkerers' Lab, a facility fully managed by IIT-Bombay students, is the only lab to which students have round-the-clock access. Since its creation in 2014, it has witnessed both brilliant innovations and terrible failures. As it evokes strong emotions in its alumni's, present IIT-B students share their project experiences and passions, as well as how this place has helped them keep their passion alive in the midst of a hectic curriculum.
While it is widely assumed that a significant number of Indian youth lack the necessary "hands-on" skills, which slows the pace of technology-based innovation, this lab, which is fully funded by the Maker Bhavan Foundation (MBF) and its past alumni's, has been the ideal setting for students to experiment with machines they find interesting without being bothered by administrative hassles and possibly become the next Mark Zuckerberg.
‘Tinkerpreneurs'
1. Meet Arnav Dutt Sharma, a 2nd year chemical engineering student at IIT-B, who, delving deeper into his passion for drone racing, has developed a First-Person View (FPV) drone. Whether it’s how planes take off and land or how they cruise in the air even through turbulent conditions, one thing has always been a constant for Arnav: a love of all things aerodynamics.
Arnav Dutt Sharma | |
Sharing his experience working on drones as a hobby, Arnav said, "Ever since middle school, I've been really interested in and enjoy making drones and planes. To ideate, innovate, and come up with feasible solutions to complex problems fuels my passion."
While it took three weeks to build this FPV drone, Arnav adds, "Building this drone was definitely expensive, as it cost me ₹30,000. Regardless of this, for now I've built this drone just for flying around and enjoying myself."
2. Meet this trio of engineers who created a magnetic-levitation wind turbine in just four hours.
Naman Saraf, Yogesh Ramteke and Om Prakash Mourya | |
Despite the fact that the project is part of their curriculum, Yogesh Ramteke, Naman Saraf, and Om Prakash Mourya, all IIT Bombay students, are a group of truly dedicated engineering students who want to contribute to making the world a more comfortable place to live.
Students explain their project, saying that "while this is just a prototype, this can generate electricity using wind energy generated by cars in highway dividers, according to our tests. One can see larger examples of what we’ve made outside the Goregaon and Kandivali stations in blue."
3. Say hello to Bob-the-Builders of IIT Bombay. Three second-year mechanical engineering students—Vedant Agarwal, Kshaunish Chandalia, and Archit Mundada—and their mentor, Sannidhya Kaushal, have worked round-the-clock to transform a 25-year-old typical FDM 3D printer into a Binder jetting 3D printer for the new normal era.
Vedant Agarwal, Kshaunish Chandalia, and Archit Mundada, Sannidhya Kaushal | |
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, Kshaunish explains, "We have built this binder-jet 3D printer as an alternative to traditional FDM 3D printers, as ours is very cost-effective and reduces waste up to 35%. While a normal 3D printer uses thermoplastic filaments through a heated nozzle, melting the material and applying the plastic layer by layer to a build platform, we've upcycled it so that whatever needs to form is in a powder format. A variety of materials can be used, such as sugar plaster of Paris, plastic, metal, ceramics, polymers, and so on."
Given that the 3D printing technologies commonly used in India are very expensive and hardly accessible, these 18-year-olds want to build something simpler and more accessible to all.
"Jugaad was our assembly motto because we recycled most of the parts we had from the discarded 3D printer," Kshaunish added.
