‘A Printed Electronics Prototype from Coimbatore Goes to Finland’
19 July 2023: Dr. Lakshmi Priya TKS, Academic Consultant, i4 technologies FZC, India & GCC, shares her experience of taking part in Innofest 2023.
Selfies are great way of recording memories especially when I am out on a purpose all by myself. Most of the times while taking a shot that covers a huge area, I would wish there was no other person in the frame, which is next to impossible in the towns and cities. This wish was fulfilled during my recent visit to Oulu, Finland, to take part in Innofest 2023. I could capture selfies and panoramic shots in the parks, streams, bridges, barren streets and shopping centers, with just me. A beautiful place, silent, lively and lit for 24 hours; yes – the polar days.
Innofest is an annual innovation competition organized by Printocent at Oulu, during which innovators come with new ideas and solutions in the field of Printed Intelligence. The event has been the launching arena for several innovations, start-ups, new products, and business opportunities. This year (2023) my team submitted an idea in the health care domain and we were delighted to receive the selection mail from Printocent.
We immediately started to make a prototype, a health care assistive device that employs the Printed Electronics (PE) Technology for hardware operations and Augmented Reality (AR) Technology for mobile-AI-based user interaction. The PE part comprised of screen printing the circuit with conductive ink and then fixing the SMD components over the circuit and mounting the circuit onto the assistive device.
The AR part involved (i) creating a graphic artwork for print media and a short promo video for digital media (ii) creating an AR Mobile App with cloud computing and Artificial intelligence (AI) (iii) integrating the App, the artwork and the video and (iv) installing the mobile App.
There were 120 people from 6 different countries, representing 30 companies, comprising of both contestants and experts. There were 17 teams of contestants who had come to present their ideas. There were experts from different verticals: printed Intelligence researchers, academicians, finance experts, design experts, nano technologists, business personnel and more. These experts joined the various teams and provided productive inputs to enhance the ideas of the various teams. All other teams were from Europe and my team was the only one from outside Europe.
On June 7th, 2023 evening, a visit to the Printocent Pilot Factory at VTT, Oulu, was arranged for the participants. There were presentations made by companies from Spain, Norway and Germany work on printed intelligence products, followed by roundtable discussions on printed intelligence applications in food sector and in manufacturing sustainable products.
On the next day, June 8th, 2023, the organisers, experts and contestants gathered at the meeting hall in the Nallikari Restaurant, Oulu. The most awaited event began at 10 am. Presentations about previous Innofest were made. The previous year’s Innofest winner rendered his speech. The teams were introduced to the experts assigned to them by the organisers. The ideas were deliberated upon with experts and in the evening a three-minute presentation was made by each team one after the other. Apart from mine, ideas presented by the various teams included the use of printed intelligence for energy harvesting, food safety, waste management (food waste, bio-waste, e-waste), building construction, robotics, medical devices and fruit freshness ideas.
On June 9th, 2023, the second day of the contest, each team made a one-minute presentation as a promotion of their product. The jury shortlisted 5 teams which were then made to do a final presentation. The grand winner was a German construction company whose idea was flat shielded cables.
It is an achievement for my fellow teammates N. Alagusundari, D. Arthi and me, that our idea was selected at Innofest, the idea with the prototype was presented and appreciated by business persons, leading PI manufacturers and researchers. The only regret is that the other two could not travel with me to take part in the event.
Dr. Lakshmi Priya TKS (99401 63309) / tkslp.csr@gmail.com
