'Innovators of Tomorrow' unleash new ideas

MUMBAI: Fifteen-year-old VarunVasudevan from Bangalore was 'cheesed off' with the constant power cuts. Hedreamt of uninterrupted power supply sans cables, on the lines of Wi-fi.Pune-based Tejas Modak wanted a device to track and erase airpollution. And Pranjal Chaubey of Lucknow dreamt of smart utensils that wouldindicate the nutritional value of each meal.Crazy stuff? Notexactly, if today's dreamers turn out to be tomorrow's innovators. In a bid todevelop technologies for a better tomorrow and ignite the power of ideas, Intelteamed up with The Times of India to enable consumers come up with futuristicsolutions for today's problems.The 'Innovators of Tomorrow' contestinvited participants to share their vision of how technology could change lives.Ten people were felicitated for dreaming it big.So, whileNikita Wankhede from Nagpur dreamt of a 'substitute planet residence' based onthe basics of a satellite revolving around a bigger planet - to combat thegrowing population on earth, Sachin Chalapati from Hyderabad ideated on aprocess where water molecules could be transported in nano level jets indesignated streams so that there would be no wastage.Modak dreamt ofan unmanned craft orbiting the earth that would convert pollutants like carbonmonoxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into fuel, to power itsflight around the earth. "The function of the craft would be to monitor and mapthe maximum emission areas and suck in pollutants," Modak said. "As long as thecraft is up there, pollutants could be checked. And the day it ran out of fuel,the earth would have been rid of its pollutants," he addedcheekily.Could it be done? Are the ideas too far-fetched? "Not atall. All the ideas are feasible," said Ryan Lemos of Akamai Technologies, whoseideation of a software to convert a written story into a full length movie,could well be under production, with a little help from private equityinvestors.As Navin Shenoy, V-P, Asia Pacific at Intel noted: "We hadasked for the most wackiest of ideas, and were pleasantly surprised at theoverwhelming response." Over a three-month period, the 'Innovators of Tomorrow'campaign received 22,000 entries from across the country.Fromhome-makers to IT professionals - even an IIT Kanpur aspirant - contenders camefrom every walk of life. Rather than classify them as "fit for the loony bin fortheir out-of-this-world crazy idea", 10 of them were shortlisted and felicitatedas inventors.As Prakash Bagri, marketing director, Intel added,"Innovation is not quick or simple, nor easy to come by. We wanted tocommunicate the 'science' behind innovation, which is core to any firm'slong-term success. And since the idea was to fire the passion of animaginative mind, the contenders turned out to be superstars in their ownright."