Thiruvananthapuram Technopark to host TopTech 08

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Technopark at Thiruvananthapuram will host the TechTop 2008 on its premises on August 18 and 19. The theme for this year’s contest is ‘Rural technology and global warming’ and responses from tomorrow’s technopreneurs.

TechTop is an All India Engineering Students project competition jointly organized by Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and Degree C and supported by IEEE. The event focuses on spreading the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

It is organized as a part of Technopark’s efforts to locate budding ‘Technopreneurs’ with innovative ideas at a very early stage, reward them suitably, and nurture their initiative to achieve commercial results, said a press release.

The organizers have received 90 applications from different states of which 33 projects are selected for the final round, it said. Of these 33 projects, 24 projects will be on display at Technopark on August 18 and 19.

The teams are from ten states - Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the release said.

"The motto behind TechTop is to promote and reward innovative ideas amongst budding engineers and to create an investment and entrepreneurship climate in the country," said, chief executive officer, R.K.Nair.

He said that this year’s theme has generated ideas for the ailing agriculture sector from Calcutta Institute of Engineering and Management, West Bengal, with their Precision Farming idea, areca nut de-husking machine from Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology Davengere, Karnataka, and Coconut de-husking machine from PSG Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

“These contributions reflect the youngsters’ shared concern about the growing farmers suicides in the country and the remedies mooted by them to save our ailing agriculture sector,” R.K.Nair said.

The project caters not only agriculture but also cover software, health, communication, textile and other areas as well, he added.

The most innovative, socially relevant and commercially exploitable projects will get a cash award of Rs 1 lakh sponsored by Degree Controls, followed by second prize of Rs.25, 000 sponsored by the IBS Software and three third prizes Rs.10, 000 each sponsored by One View Systems, AES Solutions and SunTec Business Solutions.

TechQuiz is scheduled on August 18 for the High School and Higher Secondary Students. The first prize of TechQuiz carrries a cash prize of Rs 4000, second prize Rs 2500 and third prize Rs 1500. A consolation prize of Rs 500 will also be given away.

The Project Exhibition at TechTop will be open to public on August 18 and 19 and the project presentation to the technical committee will take place simultaneously at Technopark.

The award ceremony of TechTop 2008 would be held on August 19.