Pragyan Blog

>> Spider Boat!

Posted by : Arvind Jayashankar // January 6th, 2009 // No Comments »

Ripped straight outta science fiction, what you see above is the WAM-V or Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel. Capable of travelling up to 5,000 miles and controllable by just two crew members! The WAM-V is powered by twin diesel engines and according to its designers can ‘dance’ over waves. Going by how it looks, I’m pretty sure it can!

Apparently this thing can be used as a luxury cruiser, emergency response unit or even a passenger ship holding up to 12 people. It doesn’t stop there; because of the way it’s powered, it uses ’significantly less’ fuel than other boats.

Got anything creative and innovative to share? Use the form on the right panel of the blog to shout and and you may have a chance at winning some exclusive Pragyan ‘09 gear!

Head over to NIT Trichy this February and dive into the future!

>> A tremendous glimpse of the obvious

Posted by : Arvind Jayashankar // January 2nd, 2009 // No Comments »

When people think outside the box, they really do! And that’s exactly what British inventor Josh Silver has done. He’s come up with a game-changer of a product design: water-lensed glasses. The glasses rely on the simple principle that the fatter a lens, the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles. The wearer simply needs to adjust a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. Once you’re happy with the strength of each lens, the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

You can mass-produce millions of these, rather than manufacturing myriad individual lenses each tuned to a user’s specific vision deficiencies. And while the one-size-fits-all mentality may not fly in developed nations, Silver’s target demographic and goal is to help the hundreds of millions of people in developing countries who suffer from poor eyesight.

So.. have you been working on product design/development in college? Why not try to make a difference with something creative and innovative! Click on below to read some more.

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>> Let’s run ‘em over!

Posted by : Arvind Jayashankar // December 31st, 2008 // 1 Comment »

The name says it all. Israeli energy company ‘Innowattech’ has created a new type of road that generates electricity as cars drive on it. Here’s the tech talk:

The supercharged surface is embedded with piezoelectric crystals, which transform kinetic energy from passing vehicles into an electrical current. With widespread adoption, the technology could feed energy back into the nation’s burgeoning electric vehicle grid, transforming congested roadways into a clean green source of energy.

The amount of electricity produced isn’t that much (400 kilowatts per kilometer or 645/mi), and there’s no mention on how cost effective it would be. But given the sheer amount of roadways present, it’s an interesting albeit niche approach to generate electricity.

Don’t you think technology is cool? What do you have to offer? Get over to NIT Trichy between the 12th and 15th of February and dive into the future with Pragyan ‘09!