Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
-Dr Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
The uncompromising vision to mould the students to be the leaders of tomorrow and to gear them up to think beyond the possible has been the propelling factor that drives each student of SRM University-AP to tread the unexplored paths and embrace the unseen challenges. They come out as transformed individuals, outgrown with enriching experiences, capable of introducing new changes into the world. Students are offered ample space and time to ideate, innovate, and build themselves into coming-of-age professionals.
Innovator Square is one such platform set up by the Entrepreneurship-cell to nurture innovative ideas and thoughts having the potential to be converted into a meaningful product or service. Each month, it brings out young talents who have expanded their limits to fashion out an unforeseen solution to the mundane troubles of society. The title winners of the ‘Innovator of the Month’ contest this time, are, Shaik Nagoor, Kalakoti Smaran, and Komirisetti Gopi, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. They have designed a special stove that runs on used cooking oil.
Introducing innovations out of bits and pieces of the commonest of things adds value to our everyday lives. These budding masterminds deserve acknowledgement for their incredible solution to utilise the leftover oil. Cooking oil is a daily essential abundantly used in food processing industry, such as restaurants and fast food, as well as in households. Reusing the oil is found to have harmful effects as it contains carcinogenic substances, that may lead to cancer or other chronic health disorders. Hence the common practice followed is to dump it in open soil. However, this will affect soil fertility and a myriad of environmental concerns.
Their motive to offer a sustainable solution to this menace is what prompted them to devise a user-friendly stove that will consume the used cooking oil. This will also serve as a better alternative to LPG, saving up to 50% of the expenditure. The students expressed their happiness in having made their tiny share of contribution for the well-being of their society. They also thanked their faculty and the university for extending unswerving support to complete this project. “We can never thank enough Dr Venkata Nori sir for guiding and supporting us from the beginning of our project, he helped us achieve this innovation, we are also thankful to Mr Udayan Bakshi sir for helping us to build a start-up”, they remarked.