Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar: The ambitious ‘Skilled in Odisha’ campaign under Odisha Skills 2018 kicked off at the Exhibition Ground here Sunday giving scores of students and youths an opportunity to showcase their varied innovative skills in the fields of fashion designing, hairdressing, hotel servicing, mobile robotics and many others. Orissa POST interacted with some of the participants at the ‘Skilled in Odisha 2018’ to learn about their talents and aspirations.
Jervis Saldanha representing Astra Aero Pvt Ltd, a startup company in Bangalore that develops drones for disaster relief as well as medical and agriculture applications, said, “Here we are presenting a project that will go a long way in facilitating farming in the hilly areas. We have developed special drones that carry seeds and fly to hilly terrains sans any vegetation. They then drop the seeds on the soil – a process called seed bombing, to promote vegetation on barren soils. This initiative aims to lower the effects of global warming.”
The medical applications (drones) developed by the firm are capable of transporting blood samples from remote villages to the hospitals. Once the tests are over, the reports are sent to people via SMS to their mobile phones.
“We also work on another type of drones that are larger and facilitate transportation of organs like hearts and livers from one city to other city for transplantation,” Jervis said.
In addition, the company has developed a smaller drone called Swab helps in disaster management people. It can be used to locate missing persons during disasters like flood and earthquakes in areas that are difficult to reach.
A fourth year student of aeronautical engineering at MV Jayaraman College of Engineering, Jervis founded Astra Aero with Goutham Joshi in January this year the due is working to develop specific drones that can be employed for providing timely medical aid to emergency patients. “We are working towards creating Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capable of delivering intensive medical aid and emergency medical services to accident victims as well as in places affected by disasters,” he explained.
After the ‘Skilled in Odisha’ event, they plan to tour Australia with their innovative projects.
In the robotics section, Tanmaya Pradhan of Industrial Training Institute in Berhampur, Ganjam, presented his innovative product – a crane (forklift) made from waste products such as used injections, metal scrap and others.
Sudhanshu Kumar Das of AMRI Hospital presented a bike ambulance containing all medical emergency aids such as oxygen cylinder, first aid kit, equipment for blood test and heart beat checking. This bike ambulance can reach places that are inaccessible to regular ambulances.
Madhusmita Sutar, a fashion technology student, said, “In present time, it is important to hone one’s skills if he/she desires to succeed in life.”
