What An Idea, Techpedia

 Prof. Anil Gupta, Exec. VC, National Innovation Foundation, IIM Ahmedabad, in a freewheeling chat with Biztech2.com talks about Techpedia.in - a collaboration network for sharing ideas, research work and more. The site, his brainchild, is an aggregation of 150000 innovative ideas sourced from 500 districts all over the country. The site also has information about 100000 projects done by 350000 students, mainly final-year engineering students, from over 500 institutes including IITs and NITs. Interestingly, he also cites examples of how the Indian enterprise community has leveraged the collaborative network.

What are the challenge areas for the Indian corporate sector, where the massive collaboration pool of Techpedia.in can be roped in?

A company seeking expertise in a particular business function or trying hard to fix problems unfathomed so far would hardly think about polytechnic or a local grade engineering college and rather go to the likes of IITs and IIMs. But they are out of reach for a large number of firms that can’t pay hefty fees to the academicians. There are better faculty members available out there teaching in the polytechnics and engineering colleges across the country in tier II and III cities. However, in the absence of a platform to showcase their work, these academicians and their pupils have been unnoticed.

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With Techpedia.in, the enterprise community can outsource their problem by posting it on the website. Currently the site has a repository of more than 100000 projects done by 350000 students, mainly final-year engineering students, from over 500 institutions including IITs and NITs. In addition, innovations, small and big, from locals are also posted on the website. Moreover, enterprises looking for unresolved issues can post them on Techpedia.in to be resolved by the community.

What’s in it for the enterprises?

The benefit for enterprises is stupendous. A problem, the solution to which might have otherwise cost the company crores, can be solved in pennies in relative terms if solved by the Techpedia.in community.

Usually the company scouts for established vendors in the market for odd problems. They cost a premium for their services. The solutions from students are cost effective because the resources used by them for research work are sourced from the college’s lab equipments.

It’s important to note that even Procter & Gamble (P&G) and General Electric (GE) have acknowledged the importance of innovation coming from outside the organisation. As per P&G in the times to come, more than 50 percent ideas will come from outside the company via collaborative and crowd sourcing solutions.

Please provide examples of some path breaking projects undertaken and posted on Techpedia.in.

A company was looking for a security solution that will not allow unauthorised vehicles to enter the gate. The solution was suggested by a student. Though the said company did not use the solution, it made sense for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). They wanted a smart solution to stop any other vehicles on the track other than the bus. The gate will not open for any vehicle but only for the bus. The company manufacturing the gates found this as a genuine solution and incorporated it.

What is the potential of Techpedia.in?

Techpedia.in can be a breeding ground for generating ideas of future. We can find out building blocks which can be pooled together to produce new innovation. One solution by one student in one college may not be the ultimate solution. But students from various colleges can come up with a collaborative solution using the site that meets the demands of the solution seeker.

Students can be opened up to a number of challenging jobs, something like asking a problem, the solution to which should have set parameters - should be of a particular code language, tight budgets, timelines, hardware limitations, etc.

What was the source of the idea behind Techpedia.in?

There are about 12 lakh students in various engineering technology institutions and about 5 to 8 lakh students in the healthcare, pharmacy colleges. All these students do a project in the final year that involves work, which if converted into commercial products can have a huge impact on the society. Unfortunately, the originality in these projects has all gone waste over these years. For the last sixty years we have been throwing the talent of the students in these colleges down the drain. This blatant state of ‘unawares’ struck my mind in 2002.

How did you go about to bring the idea of a collaborative platform to fruition?

The Information Technology department invited me to recommend my wish list. One of my suggestions was to have a portal as a repository for showcasing the projects of the students. But till 2008, I could do nothing about it.

Then came the turning point. A student invited me for a lecture. I set a condition before him to set up the required portal if he wanted me to conduct the lecture. He took up the challenge and to my surprise, not only fulfilled the requirements but exceeded them. I underestimated his potential by twenty times. He crated the platform and posted 100000 projects done by 50 students from 500 institutes.