A proud moment indeed for all Indian Biotech Professionals. A team of two students from IIT, Kharagpur named Ashutosh S. Chauhan & Shruti Sarode bagged the first prize along with a cash prize of 1000 Euros each at Green Brain – 2016 held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The proposed microalgae mediated wastewater treatment process project was highly applauded & rewarded at the international event.
About the competition
Green Brain of the Year competition is organised by Middle East Technical University, Turkey in its Northern Cyprus campus on an annual basis. The contest has been devised to increase and enhance the international awareness of the Vital Triad: Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Energy, and Sustainable Water Resources among youth. About 328 teams from 24 countries (the United States of America,the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Indonesia, Ethiopia,Turkey, Fiji, Philippines, India, the Netherlands, Canada, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Macedonia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Singapore, Jordan, and Vietnam ) participated in the first round of the 5th “Green Brain of the Year”. Top 4 teams ( 2 from India, 1 from Bangladesh & 1 from Indonesia ) were provided with an all expense paid trip to Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus to present their idea
to the grand jury.About the project & our work at IIT Kgp
For this competition we proposed a microalgae mediated wastewater treatment process which simultaneously has the potential to address the problems of carbon dioxide emissions and energy crisis. Both of us pursued our Bachelor’s thesis project at Bioprocess and Bioproduct development Laboratory (BBDL) under Professor Ramkrishna Sen of the Department of Biotechnology. From our theoretical and practical exposure at the Department of Biotechnology we learned about microalgal cultivation techniques and explored its potential to solve the major problems of wastewater treatment, carbon dioxide emissions as well as energy crisis.
Further plan regarding the project
We obtained very significant and constructive suggestions from the jury at the competition, we’ll work on integrating those in the project for improving the economic and technical feasibility of the project and we’ll try to work towards its implementation in large scale.
Quote from Professor Ramkrishna Sen ( Head of Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory , IIT Kharagpur )
‘I have known Shruti and Ashutosh since their second year when they approached me with the desire to work in my lab. They have been involved in some of our on-going R&D activities in the lab ever since. The Green Brain project was inspired by our algal biorefinery research. Both of them are very hardworking, sincere and motivated. Their recent success at Green Brain of the Year Contest makes everyone in our BBD Laboratory and the Department proud and we all wish them a prosperous future ahead.’
