Presidency University students to represent India in Red Bull Basement world finals

Team Volnix from Presidency University, Bengaluru, comprising Samrudh Yash and Pavan Kumar J, have won Red Bull Basement India 2021. They will now spend the next month further developing their prototype before they travel to the Red Bull Basement World Final.

Both Yash and Kumar are second-year students pursuing Cyber Security Engineering (CSE) at Presidency University.

In order to participate in this competition, the duo had created a programme that aims to save water by automating the process of watering plants and lawns based on the moisture content of the soil, avoiding overwatering by existing sprinkler systems.

“As a college student, I always used to forget to water my plants as I was busy with academics and the plants used to dry up.So we thought of an innovation to solve this issue. Everyone is busy in this modern world. Everyone has a dream to plant at least one plant and take care of it but due to their busy schedule they forgot to water the plants. Our project automatically waters the plant when it requires water. It also saves water from being wasted. As our project water the plants only when it requires water. Majority amount of water can be saved as we are not watering them daily. We are watering them only when it requires water,” said Kumar.

The Red Bull Basement contest is held globally and a winner is selected from each country. The winning team gets to develop their idea and innovations and attend the global finals, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from December 12 to 16, 2021.

The Red Bull Basement contest is open to all student innovators from across the world and from any area of study. Its main agenda is to give participants a platform to innovate, collaborate and improve student life through innovative tech solutions.

University students aged 18 years and older can participate in this contest by visiting the official website and uploading a video that clearly shares their idea with the public. To help the next generation of students develop their ideas, the organising committee provides resources such as mentors, workshops, networking events and more, both online and on participating campuses.

“I was nervous on the day of results, and when I saw that our project was selected, I felt extremely happy and also proud that I can represent my country at an international stage. I think this project will be helpful in reducing the wastage of water because Volnix checks the necessity of water in the soil by measuring the moisture content of the soil and using this data the plant is watered. This not only saves the water but also increases yield. The other main feature is the scalability of the device. It can be implemented in the backyard for a few plants as well as big plantations which are spread across acres.In India almost 80% of the water is wasted due to unplanned and irregular usage of water. Almost little to no effort is given to save water. This is a small initiative that can be the change that is required in the current scenario and this is a small step towards a sustainable development and a hope for the future. We faced multiple challenges in the making of the project one was implementing a Graphical User Interface for the moisture sensor and then a proper web page for the project. There were a few obstacles while building the project and we managed to overcome them,” said Yash, explaining their winning project.