Tinkerers’ lab inaugurated at IIT Hyderabad

A tinkerers’ lab was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH), at Kandi mandal headquarters here on Thursday.

Established on the hostel premises to let both students and teachers have access to the lab round the clock, it has 3D printer and miniature CMC machine. It’s a space to explore technology and tinker with whatever possible to convert creative ideas into practical products.

This is the third tinkerers’ lab established at an IIT in the country with the first coming up at IIT-Mumbai four years ago followed by IIT Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat in January.

These tinkerers’ labs were established by the alumni of 1975 batch of IIT-Mumbai.

“Tinkering in the early stage and creating something, however small it may be, will help students learn many aspects of innovation that they may not learn in a classroom,” said Hemanth Kanakia, chief guest at the inauguration ceremony and general partner at Columbia Capital, U.S.A., while addressing the students and faculty. He is also the alumni of IIT-Mumbai who is instrumental in establishing the lab.

“This is the first sponsored lab at IIT-H. The alumni of IIT-Mumbai have come forward to help us. The lab will be helpful for students and teachers to experiment and fix things. It would be better if students learn to tinker and fix things at an early stage,” said U.B. Desai, Director, IIT-H.

A team of 10 students – Lalith, Shashank, Shaswath, Rahul Devaraj, Jayasimha, Sourab Soni, Kishore, Chaitanya Sagar and Rajiv Jain – would lead the lab guided by Sushmee Badhulika and Viswanth.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Avadhani / Kandi – March 02nd, 2018