KOCHI: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, the Coimbatore-based private university, has set its sights on becoming a globally renowned centre of education, according to the varsity’s Vice Chancellor (VC) Venkat Rangan and pro-vice chancellor (PVC) Brahmachari Abhayamritanandapuri.
“Our aim is to make Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham an internationally recognised centre of education,” they told reporters at the varsity campus in Coimbatore.
As part of the efforts to achieve a global brand recall, the university is expected to break new ground through pioneering research.
More importantly, there will be a major shift in the research projects undertaken, from the defence sector to community development.
The prototypes of most of the inventions were being readied, said the research teams who provided reporters a ringside view of the projects lined up.
The featherweight bulletproof vest was developed by a team of researchers led by Ajeesh Mannadiar. In stark contrast to the bulletproof jackets currently used by the Army, which weigh more than 11kg, the vest being developed would weigh a mere 1.5 kg.
“This was made possible as the proposed jackets were made of indigenously-developed lightweight high temperature thermoplastic polymer,” said Mannadiar.
“Our aim is not only to reduce the weight, but to bring down the price also. The jacket currently used by the Army costs `1.2 lakh apiece while the cost of the lightweight jacket will come to just `30,000.The research team has completed the first phase,” he said.
Another crucial invention by the researchers at the varsity is the high precision Speech Recognition System. It can identify a person by analysing the voice samples and will be of immense help in criminal investigation.
“The system will be of great help to agencies like the anti-terrorism squad(ATS) and the Research and Analysis Wing(RAW),” said Santhosh Kumar heading the team involved in the project.
The contribution of the Research l team led by Shriram K Vasudevan is a mechanised waste collection unit which can be used to clean the railway track and its premises.
“The unit can collect waste dumped on the track and on its sides using this cost- effective machine. The machine which can move along the track gathers all types of waste on the track, including the septic tank waste, besides spraying water on the track after collecting garbage,” Shriram said.
He said the prototype of the machine would be ready within the next three-four months.