Three colleges win at AICTE IDEA Lab Tech Fest 2025 with 76+ stalls

Over 76 interactive stalls where students and faculties showcased innovative projects from cutting-edge technological solutions for real-world problems affecting farmers, agriculture, and sustainable urban development among others at the event held at AICTE headquarters in Delhi.

These projects were developed in AICTE-powered Idea Development, Evaluation and Application (IDEA) labs, launched in 2021 by the technical education regulator. The AICTE IDEA Lab initiative aims to provide technical education institutions across India with state-of-the-art facilities for innovation, experimentation, and prototyping.

Institutions having IDEA Labs showcased their best projects in the fest that attracted more than 1,500 visitors, including exhibitors, innovators, faculty members, and technology enthusiasts.

A five-members expert panel consisting of academicians and industry leaders assessed the projects based on creativity, technical expertise, and project impact. The top teams were awarded first, second, and third with prize money of ₹1 lakh, ₹75,000 and ₹50,000 respectively.

“We assessed the projects based on the kind of innovation, their impacts on society, stage of the projects from patenting to implementation,” Dr Surabhi Sonam, faculty at DY Patil International University, Pune, and one of the assessors told HT.

Projects showcased by students from SMVEC won the first prize. “We have developed a chlorine testing device which can give us the result within one minute compared to two to three days in traditional methods. Chlorine testing ensures safe and potable water. We also developed ‘Safemade’ device, which is an AI-powered elderly fall prevention device, which alerts caregivers in case of situations where an elderly person may fall,” Ruthresh, a BTech student and one of the SMVEC team members, said.

The team from SSIPMT, Raipur with four projects on display, bagged the second place. “Our most important project is Agrobot which detects crop types and diseases affecting them with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This device will spray fertiliser only on crops hence keeping the soil quality intact,” Vikas Singh Thakur, a third-year BTech student, who was a part of the team said.

The team from BIT Durg secured the third prize for a project on smart irrigation. “We have developed a smart irrigation system device for precision farming which uses technology to improve crop yields and efficiency. Farmers are confused when they should irrigate their crops due to unpredictable weather. Our device fitted with a sensor detects the soil moisture data and combines it with weather forecast data for up to three days using machine languages to inform the farmers whether they should irrigate their fields or not,” Sarthak Sinha, a BTech student, who was a part of the BIT Durg team said.

Addressing the event, AICTE chairperson TG Sitharam said that 318 more institutions have received the approval to start AICTE IDEA Labs on their campuses. This will be in addition to the 115 existing such labs bringing the total number of IDEA Labs across India to 432.

“Idea Lab serves as a seed for innovation. Through this initiative, both teachers and students are engaging in peer-to-peer learning, multidisciplinary approaches, and tackling real-world problems. Students are actively working on solutions related to water conservation, agriculture, healthcare, and technology,” he said.

These labs are equipped with the latest technologies and resources to help students and faculties to turn their creative ideas into tangible solutions. Each IDEA lab is established with a total of ₹90 lakh, including ₹30 lakh contributions from AICTE, ₹30 lakh from institutions and another ₹30 from industry, alumni or any other source.