Welingkar Institute Students Engage In ‘Swachh Bharat’ Project To Encourage Citizens
Welingkar Institute of Management recently organized an innovative ‘Swachh Bharat’ project that involves micro and macro waste management. The project encourages citizens to follow waste management protocols in newer and innovative ways. The project will ensure proper guidance in waste management and include the designing of new technology for waste management. It will also use foreign technology and a combination of different technologies for efficient and convenient waste handling. The organizing team has also developed web portals and apps to propagate a cleaner and greener environment.
One of the many problems faced by citizens is the continuous accumulation and piling up of garbage in areas that ought to remain clean and safe. To to cater this problem, students at Welingkar Institute created a ‘Smart Dustbin for Homes’ that will segregate the garbage at the source automatically. With the help of high-tech sensors, capacitive plates and proximity sensors, these new dustbins will ensure a clean, garbage-free environment. The team has worked tirelessly to develop the technology to run this project and created a fully functional 3D digital prototype.
Under the guidance of Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Welingkar students have created the technology that will segregate the garbage automatically; that is, dry waste, wet waste and metallic waste would be separated within the dustbin itself. The project team at Welingkar has also developed an end to end system so that the waste collected by the smart bin would be responsibly taken care of and treated. The dry waste will either be recycled or sold off to dry waste management facilities. The wet waste would be converted into usable forms of energy and the metallic waste would be recycled.
The project also deals with conceptualization of different possible solutions regarding trash tracking, waste disposal, garbage segregation, management of waste, water and sanitation.
The Welingkar Swach Bharat project was kick started in Kumbhathon 5. A 3D digital prototype of the smart bin was created and the prototype was tested for efficiency and workability. A number of problems in waste management were narrowed down to four new identifiable problems and the solutions to these problems were figured out. The project team also designed the business model canvas for their smart bin. They first studied the demographics of Nasik and its surrounding areas. The primary research team visited the Nasik garbage dumping grounds and interviewed the local authorities to find out the most common problems faced by them in waste management. The team then inferred that the number one problem faced by waste management authorities was the segregation of different types of garbage. Garbage segregation was the most important and crucial problem faced. The unorganized and ill managed segregation of garbage led to a host of new problems. Garbage collection and disposal were relatively well managed as compared to segregation.
Thus, the team at Welingkar Institute, under the able guidance of Dr. Uday Salunkhe, funneled down to garbage segregation and using new technology, developed a product that would simplify and manage waste management, particularly in the area of waste segregation.
Top global designers showcased solutions for social and infrastructural problems in Mumbai
The ‘2014 Interdesign Mumbai’ workshop, a collaborative initiative of WeSchool and ICSID, showcased around 25 prototypes created by the participants.
Introduction of the collaborators
Since 1971, ICSID’s Interdesign Workshops have been devoted to analysing, developing and solving issues of international significance. Generally hosted by an ICSID member society, Interdesign Workshops are forums in which designers from different countries and cultures work together with local experts exploring design issues of regional, national and global importance. These workshops seek to provide innovative and appropriate solutions intended for implementation.
Established in 1977, WeSchool features among the premier Business Schools in India. Run by charitable Trust S.P. Mandali, Pune, all across the state of Maharashtra.
The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) is a non-profit organisation that protects and promotes the interests of the profession of industrial design. Founded in 1957, ICSID serves as a unified voice of over 50 nations through which members can express their views and be heard on an international platform.
Theme and work done in the workshop
Under the theme 'Humanising a Metropolis', with subthemes like ‘Visualising Matunga as a University Township’, ‘Living with Rain’, ‘Zero Waste Household’, ‘Redefining the Outdoor Experience’, ‘Health on the Go’ and ‘The Great Indian Bazaar (Unorganized and Organized retail)’, the exhibition of the prototypes at the open house showcased how many of these solutions could later be applied in other Indian metropolises and emerging international economies.
30 designers from India and 8 other countries with different design competences came together to address some of the social and infrastructure challenges facing the growing city of Mumbai. The participants worked on 6 sub themes formulated based on the pre-research done by WeSchool faculty and Dr. Uday Salunkhe. They visited various precincts and understood the design bottlenecks faced by the city focusing on key issues like drainage system, waste management, challenges of creating an educational township, socializing in a metro, improving the outdoor experience for citizens, chaotic shopping experience, lifestyle related health problems etc., and ideated on the probable solutions which can be practically implemented.
Speech from Dr Uday Salunkhe: -
Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool said, “This is the first time ICSID-Interdesign workshop was held in India and we are happy to be hosting it. For the past two weeks, WeSchool has been an innovation hub with experienced designers from India and abroad devising ways and means to bring about simple design interventions, to tackle some of the critical infrastructural and social challenges in a metropolis like Mumbai. The aim behind this workshop was to try and bring about transformative changes that will improve the living conditions in Mumbai by tackling existing issues through a designer’s holistic and abstract approach. It has been our constant endeavour to give a fresh learning experience to our students and faculty members by contributing to society and hence, our attempt to bring positive reflexes will not stop at the planning level. Apart from creating globally responsible leaders, we at WeSchool understand our social responsibility and will continue doing activities differently to make a maximum impact”.
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