IIT Gandhinagar, in collaboration with Maker Bhavan FoundationTM (MBF), concluded the 7th edition of InventX – a six-week residential programme where undergraduate students from across India learn to invent, build, and create real patent ready prototypes.
InventX – formerly known as Invention Factory – is an intensive residential invention programme for undergraduate students. This year, 60 students were selected from more than 1,000 applications received from colleges across the country and participated in the programme hosted at IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Jammu. Through interdisciplinary collaboration involving students from engineering, science and design backgrounds, participants worked to identify practical challenges, develop innovative solutions, build prototypes and prepare provisional patent applications before the conclusion of the programme.
In this edition, 29 students were mentored by IIT Gandhinagar and filed 10 provisional patent applications under the mentorship of IIT Gandhinagar. InventX has now crossed 120 cumulative patent applications since the programme started, each of which protects an invention for one year, and filed in India and the United States.
Proud at the accomplishment of the students, Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, said, “InventX distinguishes itself through its outcome-oriented approach, where students cultivate a maker and innovation mindset by identifying real-world problems, building working prototypes and filing patent applications. Supported by our expert faculty and industry experts, the program fosters the ‘Maker Movement’ essential for India’s future, a vision Maker Bhavan Foundation is effectively championing.”
Excited at the quality of inventions this year on display at the InventX finale at IITGN, Gautam Khanna, CEO, Maker Bhavan FoundationTM, said “India’s ambition to become a global manufacturing and technology leader must be fueled by engineering talent having an innovation and maker mindset. At MBF, we are committed to paving the way for a generation of engineers that build systemically and on scale. IIT Gandhinagar’s mentorship has been instrumental in this, and it is encouraging to see the impressive prototypes developed in this extremely short duration.”
Over six intense weeks, students engaged themselves in real world engineering, not through solving a problem from a textbook, but by finding a problem worth solving in the first place. They identified gaps, challenged assumptions, built prototypes that failed, rebuilt them, and tested again. Guest evaluators challenge, improve and test the real-world application of these inventions. The program concluded with a final presentation to a panel of academics, industry experts and patent attorneys.
The top three teams at each campus were also awarded cash prizes of Rs 2,00,000, 1,00,000 and 50,000. Further every participating team has filed a provisional patent application in both India and the US, which will soon be awarded to the student inventors.
WINNERS
IIT Gandhinagar
1st Prize:
Ihsaan K S from GEC Idukki, Shreyansh Jain from IIIT Nagpur and Ritik Gupta from IIT Indore developed the Wearable Dog Deterrent Device—a solution designed to protect children from aggressive stray dog attacks.
2nd Prize:
Priya Kyal from IIT Ropar, Khushi Singh from Navrachana University and Daksh Beniwal from IIT Ropar developed a First Aid Solution for Snake Bite—an automated system that immobilises the affected limb and applies the required pressure, helping prevent fatalities by providing critical support until the patient reaches a hospital.
3rd Prize:
Harnoor from IIT Jammu, Ujjwal from NITK Surathkal and Rishabh from DTU developed a Fish Storage Box for Fish Holds—a solution aimed at reducing fish spoilage, enhancing food security and improving economic resilience through better storage methods.