Category Archives: Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam lad designs shoe to guide the blind

Records, All, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

Soon, the visually impaired will be able to walk with more ease and “see” the road ahead of them, with a third-year industrial engineering student of Gitam University inventing a shoe with an embedded electronic circuit that senses the existence of obstacles in the path.

The student, Krishna Sai Inkoolu, has applied for a patent for the shoe with an electronic circuit that will help the visually impaired people walk by sensing obstacles up to three metres away.

“Whenever there is an object in front of the person, a sensor that is part of the embedded circuit in the shoe triggers an electrical signal that is routed to a small motor. The motor is connected to a small moveable stick near the ankle. The stick transmits impulses to the ankle, alerting the person that he is about to face an obstacle,” Krishna Sai told TOI.

“The motor in the shoe is recharged automatically when the person starts walking. So there is no need to keep changing batteries for the motor,” said the engineering student. Also, the design is such that it would not be damaged by water. “It’s fabricated in such a manner that it will be unaffected by water falling on the circuit,” he said. “The basic model will cost Rs 700 to Rs 800, so it is quite affordable,” he added.

Products such as smartphone apps and actuators developed earlier have failed to make an impact as all sections of society cannot afford them. “I got the idea when I was working on a project to use a rechargeable battery. I thought that the project could be extended a bit further. I then developed the shoe so that it can help thousands of people,” Sai said.District Blindness Control Society member secretary Dr P Krishna Prasad observed that there are no similar products available for the visually impaired and said that some research is still going on related to the ‘Bionic Eye’, which takes pictures and sends images to the brain. “However, it is still not available in India,” he said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam/ by Manish, TNN / September 14th, 2013

Students take to robot veda

Education, Science & Technology
The Robotics Club members work on a robot at the Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology premises | EPS
The Robotics Club members work on a robot at the Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology premises | EPS

Streamline Bus Transit System, Voting Machines, Intelligent Traffic Control System, Autonomous Solar Street Light, Electronic Security and Switching System and PC-based Wireless Application Control. Wondering who has developed these products?

Well, not any reputed research labs or corporates but students of The Robotics Club of the Sreenidhi Institute of Science & Technology(SNIST). Founded in 2007 by a few enthusiastic students, it provides a platform to students from different disciplines to come together and share knowledge.

“Acquiring and spreading knowledge in robotics is the governing motive behind the working of the club. Within a short span, it has grown to the level of an organisation that boasts of unparalleled strength and reputation,” says club’s founder-member A Pradeep Iyer.

The club aims not just at building robots for fun but also to inculcate that spirit of engineering among students which drives them to develop automation systems useful for the society, he explains.

The club is meant for every student from every branch in the college, as robotics is not just about mechanics or electronics. It is all about overcoming challenges in designing integrated systems like robots, adds another founder-member B Naga Chaitanya.

Since its inception, the club has undertaken numerous projects such as unmanned agricultural vehicle, all terrain navigator, pneumatic robotic arm, hydraulic robotic arm, automatic brake system, shooting robot, Streamline Bus Transit System, Voting Machines, Intelligent Traffic Control System, Autonomous Solar Street Light, Electronic Security and Switching System and PC-based Wireless Application Control.

Pradeep Iyer, who is presently working in a private firm, points out that ‘Robotic Vision’ has become a prominent area of research in the last decade. While structure and motion estimation from a video sequence has been an active topic for the last two decades.

The Postal department and BSNL officials are using voting machines developed by the club for their organisational polls. Even APSRTC officials have checked the Streamline Bus Transit System developed by the club, discloses its joint secretary V Nagendhar Reddy. Though the equipments developed by the club members are in an initial stage, interested organisations can carry forward the research, he says.

In fact, every year the club organises a national-level robotics festival titled “Roboveda”, meaning “knowledge in Robotics” in which thousands of students from various colleges from across the country participate. This year, around 500 out-station students, including, 232 from Puducherry participated in the event. The DRDO has sponsored Roboveda for about four years in the past and this time, it has been sponsored by AMI Tech.

Becoming a club member is, however, not easy. One has to take various tests before he or she is selected. Around 70 students are selected every year through a rigorous selection process.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Anil Kumar / ENS – Hyderabad  / August 22nd, 2013

Cigniti Tech opens new global test centre in Hyderabad

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

The new facility houses cloud-enabled performance test lab in addition to the existing mobile, robotics labs, helping the company’s clients further leverage its infrastructure

Cigniti Technologies Limited (formerly Chakkilam Infotech Limited), a city-based independent software testing company , opened a 34,000-sft global test engineering centre in Hyderabad on Monday. With the addition of the new facility, the company now has a total of 95,000 sft of space across Hyderabad, Dallas and Toronto.

“With the addition of this new centre, we are well equipped to meet our current and future growth needs while we continue to expand our operations further. Today, Cigniti is a 800-plus people organisation worldwide and we plan to hire another 400 by 2014 as we move forward,” Cigniti chief executive officer, Sudhakar Pennam , said in a release.

The new facility houses cloud-enabled performance test lab in addition to the existing mobile, robotics labs, helping the company’s clients further leverage its infrastructure, he added.

The company had in March this year inaugurated a mobile test lab (or competency unit) at its Hyderabad facility, from where it is offering its proprietary mobile and on-the-cloud testing platforms.

The lab enables Cigniti’s clients to quickly set up test harnesses and complete testing their mobile applications on multiple platforms, devices and networks.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by BS Reporter / Hyderabad – September 02nd, 2013

Award presented to nuclear scientist

Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology
Vignan Group of Institutions Chairman L. Rathaiah (second from left) presenting ‘Vignan Sanketika Puraskar’ to Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited CMD Prabhat Kumar in Guntur on Saturday. / Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar / The Hindu
Vignan Group of Institutions Chairman L. Rathaiah (second from left) presenting ‘Vignan Sanketika Puraskar’ to Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited CMD Prabhat Kumar in Guntur on Saturday. / Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar / The Hindu

Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited Chairman & Managing Director Prabhat Kumar was presented ‘Vignan Sanketika Puraskar’ by Vignan Group of Institutions Chairman L. Rathaiah in a programme held at the university on the eve of Engineer’s Day.

On the occasion, Mr. Prabhat Kumar said a successful engineer is one who does not disturb the balance of nature and finds solutions to various problems faced by society in a harmonious way.

Students of engineering have a role model in Sir Mokshagundam Visveswaraiah who was one of the great engineers India had produced since times immemorial.

India is full of architecture marvels such as the Taj Mahal, famous temples of South India, dams and many such imposing structures. Mr. Rathaiah said budding engineers should imbibe the qualities of Sir Visveswaraiah and apply technologies to solving local problems. Vice-Chancellor M.S.C. Bose, Registrar A. Leela Mohan Rao, Director of Engineering & Technology V. Madhusudan Rao and Vignan’s Lara Institute of Technology & Science Principal S. Rukmini participated.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff Reporter / Guntur – September 15th, 2013

GVK scion’s start-up takes to social enterprise

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

The Indian, an e-commerce start-up co-promoted by G.V. Keshav Reddy, grandson of industrialist G.V.K. Reddy, seeks to make a difference, though in a small way.

Its slogan speaks of its simple concept –“One for you, one for me.”

The concept seems rather simple. You buy a polo shirt at a flat rate of Rs 999, including handling charges and door delivery. Automatically, the company donates another shirt to the needy. Toms Shoes does a similar thing with shoes. Keshav Reddy, who is pursuing his studies at University of Michigan, has launched the initiative with his friend Ishaan Dodhiwala. The polo shirts are procured from a manufacturer in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. The logo is a peacock, the national bird. The shirts will be stored at a warehouse in Hyderabad and dispatched to buyers through a tie-up with express logistics company Gati Ltd.

“The company is in the process of building a team to support its business and we expect to expand the product range as we go along building on The Indian brand,” Keshav Reddy told Business Line.

“We have invested few lakhs in the venture and do not have any major targets. We will slowly and surely grow the business and add other products to the portfolio,” he said.

As Keshav returns to the US to pursue his studies, Ishaan, who comes from a family engaged in textiles, will handle the operations in India.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Companies / by  V. Rishi Kumar  rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in / Hyderabad – August 31st, 2013

FB target: Five billion users in 5 years

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Kirthiga Reddy,head,Facebook India delivering a lecture on Future of the Digital: A Vision Statement at the two day ISB Digital Summit being held at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad on Friday | RVK Rao
Kirthiga Reddy,head,Facebook India delivering a lecture on Future of the Digital: A Vision Statement at the two day ISB Digital Summit being held at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad on Friday | RVK Rao

No matter how low the price of mobile phones and other electronic devices are, the main issues are rising cost of data packages and lack of infrastructure, especially in rural areas, according to Kirthiga Reddy, head, Facebook India.

Kirthiga was speaking on the topic, Future of the Digital: A vision statement at the two-day ISB Digital Summit 2013 held at Indian School of Business which commenced on Friday.

In an elaborate speech on Facebook’s vision, she touched upon factors like users, targeted reach, equalisation, personalisation as the five important points leading to the future of the digital arena.

Stating that Facebook’s goal was to reach five billion users in the next five years, she added, that the goal could be achieved only by taking along all the stakeholders like governments, business establishments and telecom companies. She also explained how the devices used today would be 100 times faster in the future with the advancement in applications, networks, data access and other factors. She admitted that data transmission prices were the biggest barrier today.

According to her, local languages too are barriers in terms of compatibility of content. Responding to a query on how would social media including Facebook impact the society, Reddy said, “Every medium is a medium and it is up to us on how we use it.”

Speaking at the first panel discussion on mobile marketing and location based services(LBS), Sridhar Iyer, director, Digital Business, Citibank India pointed out that the growth in smart phones usage will lend itself to location-based services as mobile devices today are centre to all activities including social, shopping and banking among others.

Explaining factors that hinder location based services in the country, he said, geographic information system (GIS) needs to improve and termed the lack of wireless networks, bandwidth limitation, network congestion, high cost of 3G services, lack of awareness among age group above 45 and other causes as some of the major constraints. However, he was confident that LBS was bound to grow with significant amount of investment and subsequent increase in competition.

Anuj Kumar, co-founder and MD, Ripple, who spoke about mobile advertising, pointed out that battery problems in smart phones is the biggest challenge in the advancement of LBS. He hoped it would be solved in the near future.

Social media expert and CEO of Autumn Worldwide, Anusha Shetty, noted that, at a time when users relate to the virtual world more than the real one, it is the responsibility of brands to ensure that problems are addressed and solved in real-time.

Anushka further explained that 66 per cent of Facebook and 50 per cent of Twitter users in the country use mobile devices for internet access and that in the future people would look up to first-hand information on social media over newspapers and channels.

The ISB Digital summit is being organised by the Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy at ISB in association with Jigserv Digital, a digital marketing company founded by four ISB alumni. The summit will discuss and debate on trends in the digital media, recent innovations, new business models.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express  News Service – Hyderabad / August 31st, 2013

Chand is new Chairman of CSI, Vizag

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

T.K. Chand, Director (Commercial) of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, assumed charge as the Chairman of the Computer Society of India, Visakhapatnam chapter, here on Friday. He said on the occasion, “The chapter at Visakhapatnam is one of the most active and happening chapters amongst all chapters of CSI and it is the responsibility of all of us to take it forward.

Computerisation is essential for achieving transparency and efficiency in productivity.” He also announced that the annual convention of the Computer Society of India would be held here December13-15. Chand expressed concern over the continuing devaluation and weakening of the rupee. He advised the industry to consider it as a window of opportunity as the imported goods would be costlier and there would be a sudden increase in demand for domestic goods.

Further, he advised the IT professionals and IT companies to take advantage of depreciation of the rupee by exporting more IT services and software. P.C. Mahapatra, Executive Director (Projects) of RINL, was appointed the Vice-Chairman of the chapter.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by The Hindu Bureau / Visakhapatnam – August 30th, 2013

Techies form panel to protect Hyderabad’s IT hub identity

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

The decision taken by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to divide Andhra Pradesh has found an echo in the Information Technology sector. The political uncertainty over the future status of Hyderabad is causing concern to the IT sector, a major growth engine that put the city on the global IT map.

In the midst of the turmoil over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh with Hyderabad becoming the bone of contention, software employees in the city have come together and formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to strive towards bringing back the glory of Hyderabad as an IT hub.

“Brand Hyderabad” has clearly lost its sheen in recent times due to political uncertainties, agitations and counter-agitations. Following the deterioration in the image of the Capital, the Hyderabad IT Employees’ JAC has adopted a slogan “Save IT, save Hyderabad” and appealed to all the political parties not to tarnish the city’s image further. “Otherwise the city will disappear from the global IT map and future generations will suffer,” cautioned JAC Chairman M Brahmaiah.

Hyderabad is home to about 750 IT and ITES companies, including global giants like Microsoft, Google, IBM, Oracle, DELL, Motorola and Deloitte, employing over 250,000 people. The city is ranked fourth in the country in terms of software exports.

However, IT professionals say that the state had to pay a heavy price since 2009 due to political agitations. “The IT exports from the state, which was over Rs310 billion, in 2008-09, dipped to Rs270.6 billion in the next financial year. There was a slight increase in the subsequent years as the industry felt confident that normalcy would be restored,” said JAC convener N Raju. The latest exports figure stood at Rs300 billion.

The neighbouring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, meanwhile, have benefitted from Hyderabad’s woes. Tamil Nadu’s IT exports grew from Rs380.3 billion in 2008-09 to over Rs490 billion in 2011-12, Karnataka’s from Rs700.3 billion to Rs820.1 billion and Maharashtra’s from Rs420.3 billion to Rs460.2 billion.

The JAC has also decided to launch ITism — IT in social media – to bring awareness among IT professionals and also the common public about the need to protect the interests of the industry in the city.

The rate of new recruitment has also sunk to 10,000 a year from the earlier 30,000-40,000. The JAC will hold a round-table conference inviting top brass of the city-based IT firms and prepare a report containing their views on improving the situation. It will also meet the State Governor E S L Narasimhan, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, IT Minister P Lakshmaiah and Leader of the Opposition and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu in this regard.

The JAC leaders wanted the centre to take immediate steps to remove the sense of insecurity prevailing among the IT professionals in the city.

source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> International / by P S Jayaram, news@khaleejtimes.com /  August 28th, 2013

Pest attack? Mobile Apps to help rice farmers with cure

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Science & Technology
Photo: The Hindu
Photo: The Hindu

Hyderabad :

Rice, one of the oldest harvested crops, still relies on very old farming traditions. But soon, rice farmers are set to get Internet savvy as they can download a few Apps on their mobile phones that can help them diagnose pest attacks and get the right prescription of fertilisers.

Rice Knowledge Management Portal (RKMP), run by the Directorate of Rice Research (DRR), is running a pilot on a diagnostic App that works on Android phones. The second App is on fertiliser recommendation and the third one is a slew of knowledge capsules. It provides vast data on eight categories of information on selection of varieties, land prescription, nutrition, water and pests.

“We expect the first App to be ready on January 1, 2014,” Shaik N. Meera, a senior DRR scientist who heads the portal, told Business Line.

RKMP runs a portal on rice, the single largest portal for any crop in the country, with a huge repository of knowledge on rice. Launched two years ago, the initiative under the National Agricultural Innovation Project built the portal with information gathered from 106 rice research centres across the country.

The content is available in Bengali, English, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. The portal contains 6,000 minutes of audio content in all these languages. “Farmers can get information on what varieties should be grown on their lands. Policy makers can look for historic data on productivity and yield. Researchers can find past data on multi-location trials,” he said. The portal contains images of the crop at different stages. The images include the disease-hit plants.

“Farmers can simply take an image on their phones and compare it with a relevant image on the portal. A suitable prescription too is provided accordingly,” he said.

Based on the frequently asked questions at the Kisan Call Centre (1551), the portal narrowed down the common problems that bother the paddy farmers to 489 and provided detailed answers.

“We have analysed some 11,000 questions that they received at the call centre,” he said.

Keeping in view the bandwidth issues and other constraints, RKMP also developed all the content in CDs in order to make it available offline that are being distributed for free to non-governmental organisations and the other agencies in need.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Agri-Biz /  by K. V.Kurmanath    kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in / Hyderabad – August 27th, 2013

Indian-American in race for Microsoft CEO job

Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology

Bangalore : 

Indian American Satya Nadella features prominently on several shortlists of internal candidates to succeed Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft. Ballmer on Friday announced that he will part his ways with the world’s largest software company in the next 12 months.

(Nadella, 44, joined the…)
(Nadella, 44, joined the…)

Nadella, 44, joined the company in 1992 after a brief stint with Sun Microsystems. He has served in multiple roles, and is currently head of the cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s computing platforms, developer tools and cloud services. Nadella’s team delivers the Cloud OS, Microsoft’s next generation backend platform.

Nadella grew up in Hyderabad, studied in Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, the alma mater of business notables like Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Systems, and Prem Watsa, chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings, which was recently in the news as a likely bidder for Blackberry.

Nadella went on to do a Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, between 1984 and 1988, and then went to the US, where he did a Masters in computer science and an MBA.

In Microsoft, he started in the server group, and moved on to the business solutions group — developing and managing the ERP and CRM products — and then became senior VP of R&D for the online services division that includes Bing, MSN and the advertising platform.

In 2011, Nadella was back where he started, in the server and tools business, as its president.

In July this year, he was handed the responsibility of the Cloud OS platform, which, as Microsoft’s website says, “Not only powers all of Microsoft’s internet scale cloud services (including Office 365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype and Dynamics) but also fuels global enterprises around the world to meet their most challenging and mission-critical computing needs.”

The website goes on to say, “Today, businesses everywhere depend on the products that make up the Cloud OS, including Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and System Center.”

Nadella’s diverse experience within Microsoft  is seen as giving him a strong chance to succeed Ballmer. His experience with cloud makes his claim stronger, given that cloud is now seen as the future of computing.

Though Microsoft was a late entrant into cloud, it has made rapid progress in the space. In an interview to TOI in late 2011, when asked about Google and Amazon having a long headstart in cloud, Nadella said, “They don’t have the footprint in the enterprise today in terms of the applications required. There is Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com on the public cloud side, and Oracle, VMware on the private cloud side. We are the only one that straddles both sides effectively. Every customer looks for someone who solves the public and private sides with commonality — common identity, common virtualization, common management.”

He said Google’s strength is in search. “But search is one application, not truly representative of enterprise. With Office 365, we are heads and shoulders above any Google Apps adoption. They are competing with us, but if you look at the customers that we are gaining, it’s significant,” he had said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Tech> Tech News> Movements> Steve Ballmer / by Sujit John, TNN / August 25th, 2013