Rewarding Sydney trip for winning Indian students

A resource connecting farmers to crucial information on everything from crop prices to rain patterns saw three high school students from New Delhi jetting to Sydney recently as winners of the 2014 UTS IT Competition – Creativity Meets Technology.

Anushrav Vatsa, Aditya Singh, Somya Thakur from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Mehta Vidyalaya School beat teams from eight states across India to win the competition, with the prize of a study tour of UTS, UTS: INSEARCH and Sydney city.

This year, the competition encouraged students to develop an information technology solution for people living in India's remote and/or rural communities.

Their winning entry, Kissan Konnect is an analytical and guidance tool, which enables farmers to use the local government databases to get real-time updates about prices of their crops, farming tips by experts, useful information about weather and rain patterns, sharing experiences with other farmers and cropping advice.

"It enables farmers to easily connect to consumers, and sell produce at the right amount and right price, and know where to buy things," said Singh. "We named our idea Kissan Konnect, because in India farmers are known as 'Kissan'."

"We didn't know about India's farming communities until we started the project," said Vatsa.  "Once we were into it, we really understood what we were doing, what kind of importance it had, and now we really think what we have done can turn into something really big, by the government or maybe us in future."

The students' teacher, Ms Aradhana Gambhir, said they had entered the competition because it was an opportunity to help the community.

The students did not expect to win and were "really excited" to be crowned the winners and to visit UTS and Sydney.

Dr Wayne Brookes, Senior Lecturer from the Faculty of Engineering and IT said the judges were impressed with the students' research and innovation.

"What impressed us was the way these students brought together a range of different ideas into a solution for Indian farmers, and built upon the infrastructure that already exists," Dr Brookes said. "The application of information technology to provide solutions to real-world problems is at the core of UTS's teaching and learning."

"These students share a similar outlook to UTS, so it's great they've had the chance to visit Sydney, to explore our facilities and discover what makes UTS distinctive. They all have very bright futures ahead."

The study tour included a visit to UTS's new Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, Science and Graduate School of Health Building, as well as the Engineering and IT Building. The students also toured the facilities at UTS: INSEARCH and UTS Housing.

The prize winners also had the opportunity to attend a 3D Computer Animation subject, and were thrilled to meet students from the UTS Robotics Society and UTS's gaming club – Electronic Gamers Guild.

"What I like about UTS is they don't limit their students," said Vatsa. "They have access to many things, and work together with technology they already have. They are developing games at a really advanced level."

Thakur agreed, "The University isn't focused on pressuring students to study more and more, you have the chance to explore ideas and socialise."

The students were also impressed with UTS's state-of-the-art facilities and connections with industry partners.

"The equipment at UTS is very advanced, it's similar to what a company in the gaming industry would have," said Thakur.

"The experience with industry that the university gives you – I don't know many universities which do that – it's something really unique and wonderful about UTS," said Vatsa.

The students said the study tour experience has made them "more enriched, more experienced and more enlightened".

"You can visit Sydney anytime, but you won't get to see UTS like we did," said Vatsa. "We are very lucky."