At 28, Sampriti Bhattacharya,a PhD scholar from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has created an underwater drone that can map ocean floors and explore the deep sea, where even GPS doesn't work.
The Kolkata girl is the inventor and founder of the Hydroswarm ( a startup that designs and markets small, autonomous drones for ocean exploration and maritime big data ) — has been patented and is quite a rage with the defence sector and oil giants. These drones are shaped like an egg and are roughly the size of a football.
Forbes has also featured her among the top 30 most powerful young change agents of the world.
Sampriti, who left the city about seven years back for her masters, is now a PhD scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hydroswarm was created as part of her research thesis.
"Underwater navigation has been a reality for many years but for advanced searches you need maps that are as refined as, say, the Google map. This is where my drone comes in. It can map the ocean, sitting on its bed, and you can zero in on the minutest objects, living or non-living."
"You can even map underwater pollution with the help of this drone," said Sampriti, who was in Kolkata for a short while and returned to the US on Thursday. A South Point alumnus, she studied engineering at St Thomas College and did her masters in aerospace engineering at Ohio State University before switching to robotics at MIT.
She told the Times of India that she always wanted to create an underwater robot because there was no easy way to study the ocean floor. The only option was the very expensive remotely operated underwater vehicles generally used to track warships.
To commercialize her drone by starting a company, Sampriti joined a business programme at Harvard Business School. She was one of the top eight contenders to reach the finals of MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, winning $15,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank You. ^ _ ^