IIT Bombay initiates e-Yantra Innovation Challenge; here's what the winners will receive

Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay has launched the e-Yantra Innovation Challenge (eYIC 2022-23) to seek solutions for inclusive urban infrastructure. The e-Yantra project is funded by the ministry of education and hosted at the CSE department of IIT Bombay.

“Inclusivity here caters to Persons with Disabilities (PWD), who constitute almost 2.2% of our population, that is 30 million people, but have to lag behind due to less inclusive urban spaces,” IIT Bombay said in a statement. This year’s eYIC 2022 themes are “Sustainable and Advanced Technologies for Helping Urban Inclusivity and Agriculture”.

The e-Yantra Innovation Challenge 2022 registration period opened on September 1 and runs until September 25.

Here's what the winners can expect

Winning teams who are able to pitch their ideas successfully will receive seed funding from a prize pool of Rs 1 crore. The institute has also announced prizes worth Rs. 25 lakh.

Four stages of e-Yantra Innovation Challenge

The four stages of the e-Yantra Innovation Challenge are as follows. Stage 1 is a training sprint when participants are introduced to the concept, trained in technologies, and assisted in articulating issues through instruction via MOOCs and in-person encounters with specialists. Teams participate in a prototyping sprint during Stage 2 to create a working model of the proposed solution under the guidance of an e-Yantra mentor. In Stage 3, which is an invention sprint, e-Yantra assists in creating a pitch for an incubator. Teams polish their Proof-of-concept (PoC) during an implementation sprint, which is the final stage, with the help of e-Yantra mentors. For the Finals at IIT Bombay, e-Yantra provides the necessary tools, instruction, and support, as well as a travel stipend and boarding/lodging.

“The e-Yantra Innovation Challenge gives participants a platform to launch their own startups with incubation support from the IIT Bombay Incubator SINE. It has already nurtured startups such as Nex Robotics, Nibrus Technologies (Mine Surveying Drones), Drona Automation (Sewer Cleaning robots), and Katomaran (Mobile robots), to name a few," IIT B informed in a statement.

This year, e-Yantra has partnered with Deutsche Bank, the Inclusive Divyangjan Entrepreneur Association (IDEA), Design Bridge Foundation, CAG CEPT University, the Geospatial Information Science and Engineering Hub, the Desai Sethi School of Entrepreneurship (DSSE, IIT-Bombay), IIT Tirupati, the Technology Innovation Hub, and Navavishkar (GISE, IIT Bombay).