“I was trying to make a DSSC for the past six months by reading papers, but I couldn’t succeed. Today within four hours, I made a wonderful cell with output voltage of 0.45 V,” shared Dr. Ison V. Vanchipurackal, Assistant Professor of Physics at St. Thomas College in Pala.

Dr. Ison was attending a workshop on Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) organized by the School of Biotechnology as part of the student multiFest, Vidyut.

Dr. Ison was impressed with the technology and appreciated Amrita for taking the initiative to conduct the workshop. Students attending the workshop gave similar feedback.

“Really nice experience. Attending this kind of hands-on workshop has given us confidence and helped us develop an interest in nanotechnology,” they shared.

Students and others learned about two main concepts in nanotechnology, viz. thin film fabrication and electron transport in nano crystals. A DSSC transforms solar energy into electrical energy by mimicking photosynthesis. Organic pigments extracted from raspberry, blueberry or from leaves of lemon are used to absorb light and create a porous shell of nano TiO2 nano, with a big surface area for conduction of electricity.

“The workshop demonstrated the importance of nano technology, and open the door to further discussion of what electricity is and where it comes from,” shared the organizers.

Another popular workshop with over 300 attendees was Auto Factory, wherein students learned about automotive engine design, the making of an automobile and the future of automotive engineering in interactive sessions.

The workshop was sponsored by the Society of Engineers (SAE) – India and was the first of its kind in the country.

The workshop on Embedded Robotics attracted the participation of nearly a hundred students. How can a robot think? A micro-controller can serve as the brain of the robot. While students learned these concepts, they were also challenged to practically make a robotic device themselves using tool kits provided by the trainers.

“We learned everything from the basics. What are micro-processors? What do robots do? How can we program them? How can we get feedback and output? The practical sessions answered all our queries,” shared several of the participating students.

Another workshop that explored similar concepts and was equally popular among students was the one on Sixth Sense Bots, which taught participants more about interfaces between the digital and physical worlds.

“We learned about to program a robot using MatLab software,” shared Yashwanth Mani, a participant from Andhra Pradesh.

Participants learned about vision controlled motion, image processing, image analysis tools, machine control, using digital camera and analog cameras.

Other popular workshops were those on Cybersecurity, 3-D Computer Graphics, Android Programming and Entrepreneurship.

February 6, 2012
Amritapuri Campus