In order to benchmark the best performing Innovators/Startups, Institutions, Mentors, Enablers, the Education Department and other contributors organized the SSIP Prashansha Virtual Awards motivating the initiative taken by students and their mentors. Parul University bagged 7 awards in the SSIP Prashansha Awards under the categories of Campus Startups, Women Startup Award, Young Innovators, Best Faculty Mentors, and SSIP Coordinators. These 7 Awards under the above 5 categories are the highest for any university in Gujarat.
A group of Engineering Enthusiasts with Startup AR Explorer was awarded prize money of Rs 50, 000 under the best Campus Startup category. Hetavi Shah, founder of Vatsalya Bakers bagged prize money of Rs 1,00,000 under the Women Startup award. Under the Young Innovators Category, Bhavik Bosamiya came up with a project that helped to determine the strength of concrete by using sensor technology in real-time, for which he was awarded prize money of Rs 30,000. Moreover, Dr. Shantanu Chakravarty was awarded under the Best SSIP Coordinator – Private University Category, and three faculties at Faculty of Pharmacy Dr. Asha Patel, Dr. Hiral Dave, and Dr. Rakesh Patel were awarded under the Best Faculty Mentor category.
Under the GTU Innovation and Startup Center Bhupesh Goyel and Prashant Khanna, Assistant Professors at the University came up with a low-cost wearable mobile machine that is powered with a combination of technologies enabling the lower limb movement with increased strength and endurance for Paraplegic Patients, for which they received a grant of Rs 1,87,550.
Another Engineering team, Rayscan is working on a health startup that provides support to radiologists with automating the analysis of reports using deep learning. This project which received a grant of Rs 1,36,185, is expected to help radiologists detect lung diseases in seconds.
Harparaom, another engineering team bagged a grant of Rs 1,00,000 for product design that focuses on UV- based large scale impulsive sanitization of fruits and vegetables.
With an aim to contribute towards Swachhata Abhiyan, team Saffindia received a grant of Rs 83,000 for developing a solution for the segregation of waste.
The University has also been awarded grants of Rs.19.64 lacs from the Student Open Innovation Challenge (SOIC), which has been dedicated to upscaling 22 innovative start-up projects. A total of over 70 startups have been established by the alumni of Parul University, which have been creating a nurturing ground for the current students to learn the significance of entrepreneurship in practice.
14 students of the University received grants out of a total of 36 shortlisted students from Universities around the State. The University received a collective total of 6.42 lakhs in the form of grants to further develop their innovative ideas. In addition to this, another total of seven teams from Parul University had their start-up ideas selected for further development under the GIC-SSIP challenge and the team of students and mentors received a total of 4.14 lakhs grant, for further project developments.
The recently announced results of SOIC’s 7th phase brought to the spotlight 9 students of Parul University, who received grants totaling Rs 5.37 Lacs. The challenge included a total of 22 teams from Universities across Gujarat, out of which 40% of the winners were students from Parul University.
Throughout all the SOIC challenges, Parul University has received grants amounting to Rs 31.73 Lacs to support 50 Innovative Projects. “We have been focusing on developing platforms for our students to nurture their competencies in entrepreneurship. We have been encouraging and welcoming innovations from students across multiple fields from pharmacy to engineering and Ayurveda, and seeing so many of our students bag such grants, is really a moment of immense pride for Parul University”, said the University’s President Dr. Devanshu J Patel.
Further, the center is also planning to organize Flagship Events for the coming years in virtual mode events such as Vadodara Innofest 2.0 which includes Vadodara Startup Festival 2.0, Quarterly Demo Days, Vadodara Hackathon, etc.
“Seeing our students and faculties develop such innovative projects on such great platforms brings me great delight. Mainly because as Parul University our main drive is towards cultivating such solution-based thinking, and one of the ways we do this is by encouraging all stakeholders to stand on platforms such as this hackathon” said the University’s Vice President Dr. Parul Patel.
