Budding innovators roll out ready-to-wow prototypes

During the recently held Manufacturing Innovation Show-2025, IIT-Delhi’s Lecture Hall Complex came alive with ideas and energy. First year BTech students — many experiencing their first academic exhibition — stood proudly beside the over 140 research-based prototypes they had built as part of the ‘MEP1001-Manufacturing for Product Innovation’ course.

With nearly 700 undergraduate students participating, the exhibition transformed the hall into a vibrant showcase of creativity, engineering, and real-world problem-solving.

Stalls stood as testaments to how deeply the students had engaged with interdisciplinary manufacturing concepts to develop practical — often scalable — solutions.

The exhibition featured eight major project categories, each highlighting unique innovation themes.

In automation, students demonstrated practical systems designed to increase efficiency and safety.

The electronics and Internet of things (IoT) section offered an IoT door lock, a home automation system, an IoT-based medicine storage and reminder project, and highly relevant environmental monitors. Standouts for accessibility included a dictowriter. Healthcare innovations drew significant attention. Students created prototypes such as a digital BP monitor, IoT pulse oximeter, ECG monitor, and a fitness watch. The mechanical category showcased engineering fundamentals. Projects included an electronic cooling system for NVidia Jetson or RPi5, an electric bicycle promoting sustainable mobility, and a hand-powered portable washing machine. The mechatronics section included a smart dustbin, compactor dustbin, infusion syringe pump, and a filament maker capable of recycling PET plastic into 3D printer filament. The robotics aisle drew crowds with functional prototypes such as a floor cleaning robot, washbasin cleaning robot, river surface waste cleaning machine, and a waiter robot. The research section featured environmentally conscious do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, including a DIY air purifier and DIY energy-consumption data-loggers.

The exhibition also presented mega projects, which tackled more complex engineering themes. These included the openarm project and an anthropomorphic face-and-hand model.

Talking about the show, IIT-Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee said: “We encourage our students to learn by doing. This show demonstrates the innovation and capabilities of our first year BTech students. I am enthused with the response from our young students.”