Introduction

• AcYut 4 wins prizes in two robot competitions

  Humanoid AcYut 4 developed by BITS students won awards in both Robocup Iran 2011 held in Teheran on 5-9 April 2011 and Robogames 2011 held in San Franscisco on 15-17 April 2011. In Robocup Iran 2011, AcYut 4 won special technical award for completing the challenge of walking three meters, detecting the white line autonomously and coming back to the starting point. AcYut was the only team to complete this challenge. In Robogames 2011, AcYut participated both in autonomous and non-autonomous categories.  In autonomous, AcYut had to detect the weightlifting bar, lift it by itself and walk with it for 30 cms and then lift it to its head high and walk for another 50 cms.  And in non autonomous (freestyle), AcYut had to get up from the lying position and walk at different speeds. AcYut won Siver Medals in both categories in Robogames. AcYut team comprising  of Mr Akash Gupta (Team Leader), Tushar Agrawal, Apoorv Shrivastava, Deepak Gopinath and Dhairya Seth had the proud moment to receive the Medals standing behind the waving Indian tricolor amidst loud applause from the audience.   

• BITS Pilani Faculty members win IBM Innovation Awards

  Prof Navneet Goyal and Dr Poonam Goyal,  of Computer Science Department of BITS Pilani  and Dr Anil Rai from Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi were honored with IBM 2010 Scalable Data Analytics for a Smarter Planet Innovation Award. Besides getting a cash award of US $ 15000, the team members would get a chance to present their work at an IBM sponsored workshop to be held in November 2011. 

  The award has been given in recognition of the significance of the research concept submitted by the team to develop a smart crop management system using data analytics. In all, 17 concepts were awarded the Smarter Planet Innovation Award this year and the concept submitted by Prof Navneet Goyal and the team was the only one selected from India. Other awardees this year were also from prestigious universities such as Yale, University of Maryland, University of Oxford, University of  North Carolina, University of California Riverside,  University of Edinburgh etc. 

  Smart Crop Management System proposed by Prof Navneet Goyal and the team envisages a Crop Yield Prediction System which will give indications about the harvest and would help the government in planning for export/import in case of surplus/shortage. Besides, it envisages an Early Warning System which is meant for farmers to warn about crop diseases and inclement weather conditions. 

• Scientists at BITS Pilani find new ways to control malaria

  A new discovery by the scientists of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS), Rajasthan have found out ways to stop the formation of a protein which helps in the creation of a gut barrier in the malaria carrier mosquito, Anopheles. By stopping the formation of gut barrier, the immune system of the mosquito starts recognizing the malaria parasite and the immune system kills the parasite resulting in the stoppage of  the life cycle of the parasite. 

  Findings of a study by Dr Sanjiv Kumar and Dr Lalita Gupta of  BITS  Pilani which has been published in the latest issue of the journal, Science,  indicate that the growth of malaria can be effectively blocked by stopping  the formation of a specific type of  protein called Immunomodulatory Peroxidase (IMPer) in the mosquito gut. The proteins  actually help in the creation of a gut barrier which prevents the direct interaction between the mosquito immune system and the foreign antigens found in the blood. The study by Dr Kumar and Dr Gupta found that the formation of IMPer can be stopped by advanced methodology called Gene Silencing. The scientists state that stopping of the formation of the barrier will result in the recognition of the parasite by the mosquito’s immune system, their killing and thereby stopping of the parasite’s life cycle.