Awards
J. Prem Kumar, (PhD scholar co-guided by Prof. Sivakumar Balasubramanian of CMC Vellore) won the "IFNR Young Investigator Award 2024" for his work on arm neurorehabilitation robots. The award was given to him by the Indian Federation of Neurorehabilitation (IFNR) at its 12th Annual Conference IFNRCON 2024 held in Puducherry from April 12-14, 2024.
Mittapally Sandeep Reddy (co-guided by Dr. Sourav Rakshit) won the Best Paper Award in the student category at iNaCoMM 2023 held at NIT Raipur, Dec 7-9 2023 for Design Optimization of Series Elastic Actuator for Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exoskeleton.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan was inducted into MEANS (the MIME Alumni Network of Experts and Scholars) - the cohort of Distinguished and Outstanding MIME Alumni of the University of Toledo, USA, on Oct 18, 2023.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan has been appointed “Honorary Professor” by University College London on May 5, 2023.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan was awarded “Best Faculty Entrepreneur” by IIT Madras on World IP Day, April 26, 2023.
Aravind Nehrujee (PhD scholar co-guided by Prof. Sivakumar Balasubramanian of CMC Vellore) won the "IFNR Young Investigator Award 2023" for his work on hand neurorehabilitation robots. The award was given to him by the Indian Federation of Neurorehabilitation (IFNR) at its 11th Annual Conference IFNRCON 2023, held in Mumbai from April 14-16, 2023.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan's Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship was extended for two years until 31 Dec 2024.
NeoMotion (startup from R2D2) won the Most Impactful Startup Award from the Assistech Foundation at the 5th EMPOWER Conference held at IIT Madras Research Park Oct 13-15, 2022.
Aravind Nehrujee (PhD Scholar co-guided by Prof. Sivakumar Balasubramanian of CMC Vellore) was selected for the Newton-Bhabha Fund PhD Placement Program, 2022 and spent a few months at Imperial College London.
R2D2 has been awarded the 'Best Assistive Technology Initiative Among Educational Institutes' by the Assistech Foundation (ATF) in 2021.
Aravind Nehrujee has been awarded the NRDC - NATIONAL MERITORIOUS INVENTION AWARDS - 2020 in the NRDC National Budding Innovators Award of the Year category for his research 'PLug-and-train Robot (PLUTO) for Hand Rehabilitation'.
Gunjan Patel (MS 2019) is a recipient of the SRISTI-GYTI 2020 Award for AbleFit: A Wearable Device for Orthopaedic and Neurological Disorder Patients, based on his MS work. The Gandhian Young Technological Innovations (GYTI) awards recognise socially relevant technological innovation: products/prototypes that address unmet social needs or improve the functioning of existing solutions, increase affordability and/or improve circularity i.e. ecological compatibility. Teams from R2D2 have previously won in 2014 and 2015.
The Arise Team from R2D2, IIT Madras, was awarded Ananda Vikatan's Nambikkai Award for Innovation for developing Arise, the Standing Wheelchair, on Jan 24, 2020.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan has been conferred the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship for three years starting Feb 01, 2020.
Aravind Nehrujee was awarded 3rd prize for developing the Plug-and-Train robotic kit for hand rehabilitation (PLUTO) at the Velammal Healthcare Innovation Awards 2019, Madurai in the Medical and Surgical Innovation category (Nov 16, 2019). This work was also awarded 2nd Place in the Poster presentation at the Institutional Research Day, CMC Vellore (Oct 5, 2019).
Akshay Molawade won the Sivasailam Award for the Best B. Tech Project in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 at the convocation for his Design and Spring Balancing of a Manually Operated Pool Lift project. DD student Nikhil also worked with him on the project.
Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan received the award for Faculty making Social Impact from the IIT Madras Alumni Association at SANGAM 2018.
Ganesh Bapat won the prestigious Keshav-Rangnath Award for Excellence in Research 2017! The award, instituted by IITM Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Prakash Kesavaiah, is given jointly to a PhD scholar and his/her guide for the most impactful work. Ganesh's thesis is on the design, analysis and clinical assessment of orthotic knee joints. The award was given on Alumni Day, July 22, 2017.
Manish Prajapat and Vishwajeet Sikchi won the Sivasailam Award for the Best B. Tech Project in Mechanical Engineering in 2017 at the convocation for their project, Add-on Device to Assist Stair Climbing of a Wheelchair. They also received the Best Paper Award for their paper titled “Add-on device to assist in stair climbing of wheelchairs” at the 3rd Indian Conference on Applied Mechanics (INCAM-2017) organised at the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, July 5-7, 2017.
Gunjanbhai Patel won first place in the TCS Poster Presentation at SHAASTRA 2017, held at IIT Madras on January 03, 2017. Gunjan has also been selected for the prestigious fellowship program at the School of International Biodesign.
Gunjanbhai Patel won the CHIME Best Student Project Award at the 7th International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT (THIT) 2016 held on 21-22 October 2016, ITC Chola, Chennai, for his work on a Smart Wearable Motion Capture and Analysis System.
Dr. Sujatha Srinivasan has been chosen for the 7th NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards 2016 under the Working Professionals Category by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP). Awards in this category are given to people across the country who work for the cause of accessibility and universal design. On August 14, 2016, she received the award in New Delhi from Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment.
Team Aseem, comprising Swostik Dash, Vivek Sarda and Ashish Sharma, won second place at the ICRC Enable Makeathon for their design of add-ons to any wheelchair to convert it into a manual or motorized outdoor mobility device. The award carries seed funding of USD 15000, which they will use towards their startup NeoMotion.
The project, Affordable Power-Assist Wheelchair, done by Sripriya Kalidoss, SD Karthikeyan and Vivek Sarda, was among the top 40 innovations recognised at the Gandhian Young Technological Innovations (GYTI) awards ceremony held at the Festival of Innovation, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on March 8, 2015. The team received appreciation from Padmavibhushan, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Chairperson of the National Innovation Foundation. This is the second win for R2D2 at GYTI (see below).
TS Anand won the Best M.Tech Project Award at the convocation held on July 18, 2014, for his prosthetic knee design.
Body motion controlled wheelchair, Dual Degree Project (2014) of Vivek Sarda has won the Best Project Award in the Electrical Division of the Jed-i Project Challenge 2014. This marks a hat trick for R2D2 at Jed-i!
Training and Mobility Device for Children with Cerebral Palsy by Vivek Sarda has won the Sri Chinmay Deodhar Prize 2014 for Best Innovative Student Project.
TS Anand's project, Synthesis and design of indigenous polycentric knee for transfemoral prosthesis, was among the top 40 innovations recognised at the Gandhian Young Technological Innovations (GYTI) awards ceremony held at IIM-Ahmedabad on March 29, 2014. Anand received appreciation from Padmavibhushan, Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, President of the Global Research Alliance and Chairperson of the National Innovation Foundation. GYTI is organised by the Society for Research Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) and Anand's work was appreciated under the socially relevant technological innovation category.
The paper, Training and Mobility Device for Children with Cerebral Palsy, by Vivek Sarda, Sujatha Srinivasan and Anil Prabhakar, won the Best Paper Award at the 3rd International Conference in Biomedical Engineering and Assistive Technologies (BEATS-2014) held at Punjab University, Feb 12-14, 2014.
T S Anand won two first prizes at the ReMech Research Students' Symposium conducted by the Mechanical Engineering Association at IIT Madras on January 19, 2014. One was for his prosthetic knee design; the other was for his work on Theo Jansen's StrandBeest-inspired walking machine.
Design of a semi-flexion orthotic knee by Rohith Mittapalli and Sushant Veer won the Chinmay Deodhar Award for Best Innovative Student Project, IIT Madras, July 2013.
Development of a Novel Variable Valve Timing (M-VVT) System to Improve Volumetric Efficiency of Small Engines, Dual Degree Project of PS Satyanarayana (co-guide, Prof. A. Ramesh) won the Lucas-TVS Limited Prize at the 50th Convocation of IIT Madras, July 2013.
Swimming Pool Lift for Physically Challenged, Dual Degree Project of Swostik Sourav Dash won the Bhagyalakshmi & Krishna Ayengar Award at the 50th Convocation of IIT Madras in July 2013.
Development of a Low Vision Telescope, Dual Degree Project (2013) of M. V. Jairaj (ME) and Mukul Mohan (EE), won the awards for the Overall Best Project and Best Project in Electrical Division at the JED-i Project Challenge 2013. Project co-guided by Dr. Shanti Bhattacharya and Dr. Nitin Chandrachoodan, Dept. of EE, IIT Madras.
Tactograph by Vishwanath Saragadam, Rohith Mittapalli and Sushant Veer won the IEEE All India Young Engineers' Humanitarian Challenge 2012. The project was co-guided by Dr. Anil Prabhakar, Dept. of EE, IIT Madras.
The paper, Design of a Standing Wheelchair, by Harshal Chaudhari, Sushant Veer and Sujatha Srinivasan, won the Yeongchi Wu International Education Award at the ISPO World Congress 2013.
Development of Standing Wheelchair, Dual Degree Project (2012) of Harshal Chaudhari, won the Overall Best Project and Best Project in Mechanical Division awards at the JED-i Project Challenge 2012.
Adjustable & Cost Effective KAFO, Dual Degree Project (2009) of Mayank Pareek, won the Gold Medal at the National Level Technology Innovation Competition of the DST-Lockheed Martin India Innovation Growth Programme 2011.