Mangaluru: Innovative ideas towards boosting the profitability of farmers and also projects tapping natural resources to meet energy requirements, were presented during ‘Tech Vision 2018’, an intra-collegiate competition, organised by Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management at Adyar, Mangaluru on April 1, Tuesday.

The programme featured as many as 700 projects. One team came up with a high-end device which makes use of image processing technology to sort arecanuts.

Another team too, came up with an arecanut segregating machine, making use of a unique technology. The team conducted fieldwork in Balanja in Belthangadi to study the practical problems of areca growers. That the team is planning to make the machine cost effective for farmers along with obtaining a patent for the technology.

The project teams said that the technology would prevent the farmers from being cheated by the manual quality checking method.

A third team designed a pesticide sprayer, which could be used to apply pesticide on the fields and on the trees.

A project prepared by a fourth team demonstrated how wastepaper could be recycled and reused to its best.

Solar air cooler, water treatment system, pneumatic sheet metal cutting machine, windmill, solar parabolic reflector and solar tracker were other noteworthy projects.

Inaugurating ‘Tech Vision 2018’, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd Director – Works K Prabhakar Rao emphasised on project management as one of the experiences to be learnt by students.

Ministry of Defense – DRDO Defense Food Research Laboratory Senior Principal Scientist Dr Ramakrishna was chief guest.

Principal Dr U M Bhushi presided over the inaugural programme and said that a total fund of Rs 20 lakh is reserved towards the project expenditures under Sahyadri Project Support Scheme (SPSS).

Around 3,000 students from various branches of engineering took part in the event. For their outstanding projects, the winning teams were awarded prizes during the valedictory ceremony.