The e-Yantra Innovation Challenge (eYIC 2022-23) has been launched Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay to seek solutions for inclusive urban infrastructure. e-Yantra is a Robotics outreach program that caters to young engineers in solving problems using technology. The deadline to register for this innovation challenge is September 25.
Winning teams who successfully pitch will receive seed funding from a prize pool of Rs 1 crore. There is also 25 lakhs worth of prizes to be won. Interested teams can apply at eyic.e-yantra.org
e-Yantra Innovation Challenge (eYIC) is an annual competition that trains student teams in crucial skills through MOOCs before getting them to solve real-world problems and build startups. It was started in 2014 and for the past few years, on average, 2000 students have participated in e-Yantra’s Innovation Challenge.
Innovation challenge is divided into four stages. Stage 1 is a training sprint that familiarises participants with the theme, trains them in technologies, and helps them articulate problems with training through MOOCs and live sessions by experts. Stage 2 is a prototyping sprint where teams work under e-Yantra mentorship to build a prototype of their proposed solution. Stage 3 is an innovation sprint where e-Yantra helps develop a pitch to an Incubator – here, the IIT Bombay Incubator SINE.
The last stage is an implementation sprint, where teams refine their Proof-of-concept (PoC) under the guidance of e-Yantra mentors. e-Yantra provides the resources, training and guidance, and even a travel allowance and boarding/lodging at IIT Bombay for the Finals at IIT Bombay.
The e-Yantra project is funded by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, and hosted at the CSE department of IIT Bombay. This year’s themes are Sustainable and Advanced Technologies for Helping Urban Inclusivity and Agriculture. Inclusivity here caters to Persons with Disabilities (PWD), who constitute almost 2.2 per cent of our population (30M people), but have to lag behind due to less inclusive urban spaces.
Courtesy : The Indian Express