With the start-up culture in full
swing in India, many engineering colleges have started encouraging students to
projects outside their strata of academic learning. Similarly, IIT Guwahati through
its Innovation initiative, 4I Labs, aims to encourage its students to explore
projects beyond academics. Students can spend their free time in the first 3 years
of their graduation working on creating innovative products, with guidance from
professors and industry experts and without the hassles of project finance. Students
shall take advantage of this facility to experiment on product ideas, which if
successful, will be converted into their term projects and graded. However, administration
is still worried about the amount of resource wastage in case of too many
failed projects.

The idea of 4I Labs is an
extension of IIT Bombay’s Tinkerers’ Labs (http://www.stab-iitb.org/tinkerers-lab/).
The idea of this Lab was coined by IITG’s Director, Prof Gautam Biswas. Since the Lab allows
students to take up interdisciplinary projects, their innovations are not bound
by their specialization. Ronil V, a student
from IITG, says, “It’s always good to be open to options even if they don’t fall
under your area of expertise.”

On the other hand, interdisciplinary
projects may not always be beneficial to students as their field of
specialization is different from their project. Besides, if the student fails,
they will still have to submit the regular term project, which requires
additional time and energy. “We can work on any project, create any product,
experiment and make mistakes. There are no penalties for failure at the
project, but if we succeed, we can convert it into a term project and get it
graded,” says Paawan Talwar, a student at IITG. However, what happens in case
of continuous project failure in all 3 years? If students face failure post the
first year, they can start off with another project in the next year. However,
the institute hasn’t yet made any provision for lack of resources and learning
time in such situations.

Speaking of similar initiatives
in other IITs, IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Bombay also
have arrangements for student innovations. Entrepreneur Development Cells are
housed in different IITs to give students facilities to work on new product
designs. However, these products and researches are considered extracurricular
and are only acclaimed in case of success. Ardhavat Siddhu, a student from IIT
Bombay, says, “We can experiment with our ideas and if they are successful, the
institute will assist us in procedures to get them ratified and acclaimed. These
projects can be worked on in our free time.”

However, some professors do worry
about students taking up fragile projects with a view to escape regular term
projects. Students on the other hand, feel that they would like an opportunity to
explore their ideas, however insubstantial. Prof. Biswas, who gave light to
this initiative owing to strong student support, is yet to analyse its success
among students. Over the years, the number of students opting for such projects
may increase, but it is yet to see a wave of success and applause.