20 Indian geeks to flag innovations at EmTech

Bangalore, March 26 (IANS) About 20 Indian whiz kids will showcase their innovations in diverse fields, including a special shoe for the visually impaired, at the fourth Emerging Technologies (EmTech) India event in this tech hub beginning Tuesday.

"The innovations to be demonstrated by the geeks below 35 years at the event are in the areas of web, computers, biomedicine, energy, materials and transportation," CyberMedia publisher Pradeep Gupta, who is hosting the two-day conference, said in a statement.

Among the innovators, the 24-year-old Bangalorean Anirudh Sharma will demo his Haptic shoe for the visually impaired, while 28-year-old Chennai-based social activist Venkatesan Oosur Vinayagam will unleash his mobile 'antakshari' (singing competition) and 35-year-old Delhi-based Somnath Ray will display a recreated para-transit mode of mobility for the physically challenged.

In recognition of the craze for cricket in the Indian sub-continent, the organisers (MIT's Technology Review) have dedicated a session to 'Technology in Cricket'.

"Siddharth Khullar, a doctoral candidate in imaging science from Rochester Institute of Technology, MIT Media Lab, and Chinmaya Joshi from Pune College of Engineering will flag advances in cricketing technology that will hopefully reduce appeals and controversies in the sport," Gupta said.

In view of the rising crude oil prices, special sessions will be held on biofuels, clean-tech, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Sessions on sustainable development, innovation in engineering and design and technology ventures will explore solutions to spread the culture of innovation in India.

Six top scientists and research scholars from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will also share their insights into the work in digital transformation; network designs of the future and the innovation ecosystem at the conference.

The noted scientists, including two Indian Americans -- Shiladitya Sengupta and Rahul Sarpeshkar -- will speak on concepts and interplay between medical imaging, manufacturing inspection and video analytics, energy efficient systems in biology and the emerging nervous system of ubiquitous sensing.

The other four scientists are George Westerman of the MIT centre for digital business, Marie-Jose Montpetit of the MIT research lab of electronics, Brian Anthony of MIT's engineering in manufacturing programme and Joseph Paradiso of the MIT media laboratory.

Sengupta works at the Harvard-MIT division of health sciences and technology and Sarpeshkar at the MIT department of electrical engineering and computer science.

Global head of General Electric (GE) research and development Mark M. Little will deliver a keynote address on emerging technologies in computing to communication, clean-tech and materials to biomedicine.

"Mark, who guides research efforts of 3,000 technologists at the $147-billion industrial behemoth, will share his mantras for achieving success in innovation in India," Gupta noted.

Technology evangelist Narayanan Suresh will hold an informal session with National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) director V.S. Ramamurthy on technology development in India and mapping of the country's technology needs.

Eminent scientist Y.S. Rajan will share details of India's technology mission and spin-offs from space and nuclear programmes with about 500 innovators at the event.