Bhubaneswar: Apurva Masook of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) Burla has participated in the Global Fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Innovation & Entrepreneurship boot camp in Australia. It is an accelerated intense learning program of MIT to address global challenges, develop sustainable solutions and start new ventures in a week.
In the 11-day program (from January 29 to February 9, 2019) at Moreton Island, Queensland, a one-year MIT course was condensed into an intensive one-week learning experience led by MIT’s most respected faculties and alumni.
Apurva, a fourth year student at VSSUT, was selected for being part of the team that successfully launched the sounding rocket or a launch vehicle VSLV a few months ago.
VSLV was designed to measure the silt content of the Hirakud Dam and Mahanadi riverbed. The rocket consists of electronic payload which was used to perform a collaborative study to relate it with weather changes by observing and recording the parameters, vibrations, temperature, pressure, using on-board sensors and data is being transferred live by telemetry to a ground station.
Apurva said that he was thankful to Vice Chancellor Atal Chaudhari for encouraging his efforts.
The boot camp hosted about 100 participants from 33 countries. Eighteen teams were formed based on diversity, skills, overall profile and personality tests, to identify a problem and build a start-up business to solve it. In the final phase, the teams had worked round the clock to ready their ideas for a tough panel of judges.
Apurva is the only one from Odisha and the 20-year-old youngest at the event. After the programme, he was certified in New Ventures leadership by MIT. He was appreciated by Bill Aulet, MD, MIT Entrepreneurship, and Erdin Beshimov, Director, MIT Boot Camps.
The selection process for the boot camp was a rigorous three- round scrutiny based on personal profile, skills and video interview. From over 2000+ applications from around the globe, only about 100 were selected. There were only six participants from India.
‘Rocket student’ makes state proud
