Technology
Meet Team Volnix, India champions of Red Bull Basement 2021
The student team from Bengaluru were declared the India winners from among 527 entries for the technology and innovation competition.
Samrudh Yash and Pavan Kumar J of Presidency University, Bengaluru, are the India winners of Red Bull Basement 2021.
The students, who go by the name Team Volnix, have designed a product that automates the watering of plants in households and can also be applied to the level of large farms.
The product works on a set schedule to automatically water plants but also has nodes in the soil which assess the amount of hydration and adjust the amount of water that is sprinkled.
Team Volnix was adjudged to have been the best out of 527 applications in India.
They are now one of 44 finalists from amongst 4,041 entries across the world.
Team Volnix will be part of the development phase of Red Bull Basement 2021 from 2nd November to 11th December. During the development phase, they will be given resources, assistance and mentoring to help bring their idea to life and perfect their prototype.
Post the development phase, they will partake in the Red Bull Basement 2021 World Finals which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, from 12th to 16th December. At the World Finals, they will present their idea and explain the concept to the judges and their fellow finalists. From the 44 finalists, one winner will be declared as the Red Bull Basement 2021 World Champion.
Here we speak with the members of Team Volnix about their innovation.
Could you describe your innovation in a few sentences?
It is a smart, automated plant-watering system that doesn't require human intervention in the process of irrigation. It helps you have an efficient watering system that also saves an important resource like water.
What inspired this idea?
My mom would always ask me to water our house plants. But I would often forget and eventually the plants would dry out. So I thought I had to do something to fix this problem. I discussed it with my friend later we decided to automate the entire watering process. We thought this innovation can help people from all walks of life.
Samrudh Yash explains the concept
© Focus Sports
What stage of development is your idea at the moment?
The prototype is pretty much complete. We are working on the front-end web development at the moment. And we are also thinking about possible ways we can scale this product up for large plantations/farms.
From your research, are there other similar products in industrial or commercial use?
I wouldn't say there are similar products, but there are some basic versions with the same idea. But those are not so user-friendly and do not have as many features as our product.
Compared to the other similar products, how is Team Volnix’s product better and what features does it have?
We have a graphical user interface so the user can interact with the device easily (helps reduce language barriers). We are also hosting it on a webserver, so it can be used from any part of the world. We’ve also added in many more features that the basic products in the market don’t have. We are also planning to introduce big data collection into the product and are working on analysis of watering patterns over time so we can eventually convert this product into an artificial intelligence/machine learning model.
Team Volnix's product in action
© Focus Sports
What is the role of platforms such as Red Bull Basement in helping young entrepreneurs like you?
Red Bull Basement is a great platform for entrepreneurs. If I’d started off on my own, it would have been very difficult to get the exposure and investors we got through Red Bull Basement. It also helped our project with direct funding as well, and that helped us purchase sophisticated equipment like 3D printers so we could manufacture components of our product. Red Bull Basement also gave us a platform to interact with industry experts who mentored us; we gained a lot of insight on product prototyping through these interactions.
What do you hope to achieve through the development phase of Red Bull Basement?
Through this development phase, we would like to make our product a market competent commodity. We want to turn it from an idea and a prototype into a real-world product that everyone can use.
What drives you as individuals? What part of your passion inspired this particular innovation?
I would say it is our passion to bring a change in the modern world and our concern for saving ecological resources. Irregular and excessive watering is a major issue faced in farmlands and urban gardens. We wanted to design a product to address this issue. And it also helps reduce human resources required for maintaining plants.
Pavan Kumar J (left) and Samrudh Yash of Team Volnix
© Focus Sports
What is your hope for your project going into the Red Bull Basement World Finals in Istanbul?
Going into the World Finals does make us a little nervous but we think it will be a good opportunity to meet other innovators, learn and network with them. We realize only 44 projects were selected for the World Finals out of 4,000 entries. This means the competition is tough and we look forward to it.
What is the next step for your innovation after Red Bull Basement?
We are looking forward to seeing how the project performs at the Red Bull Basement World Finals. We are also continuously working to update and upgrade our project according to the needs of the market. We would like to approach other manufacturing companies with our idea so it can be productized and eventually benefit both society and the environment.