College projects are a great way to get students to think
out of the box and create something innovative and interesting from what they
have learnt through their course. However, some of today’s youngsters have gone
a step further, combining their theoretical knowledge with current trends and
personal preferences to step into the world of entrepreneurship.
One new startup from Goa is Plugzee, a tiny device that
turns any audio speaker system into a high-resolution Bluetooth speaker.
Plugzee is founded by Nagarjun Kinare, a student of Padre Conceicao College of
Engineering, Verna (PCCE) with the team of Valindo Godinho (lead software
developer), Krishna Devate (photography and videography), Aaron Colaco (web
development) and Kirit Ayya (software development). It is now a successfully
crowdfunded hardware startup from India that has raised over $40,000 in funds
with more than 1,400 backers on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, within a
period of 2 months.
“We have had 6 iterations of our product so far. Our manufacturing
unit is currently based out of China, and our first batch of production of
2,000 units is complete and ready to be shipped to our crowdfunding campaign
backers who pre-ordered it. We are fulfilling our pre-orders at the moment,”
informs Nagarjun.
Anadrone Universal Switch Controller System is an android
application that uses Bluetooth to control specific Bluetooth enabled hardware
to turn on/off switches that power up electronic devices. Designed by four
students of St Xavier’s College, Mapusa – Denver Braganza, Chrisel Carvalho,
Clayton Sequeira and Lance Trinidade, Anadrone currently works within a
wireless range of 15 metres and can control a maximum of 16 devices. It is
designed to assist the elderly and disabled in particular, and provide convenience
to all.
“We plan on adding a few features with future updates. One
of them is speech recognition. With this, one can control their devices with
speech only; they won’t have to touch their phone. We plan on making
improvements in both app and hardware so that our project can control the
amount of power supplied to devices,” reveals Denver, adding, “We are working
on making the user interface much more customisable to meet the preferences of
the user.” The team members are currently completing their further studies but
will get together soon to take Anadrone Universal Switch to the next level.
Richard Pereira, a third year student of MES College, Vasco,
launched his fish sale and delivery website, fishopper.com, on his birthday.
Just 15 days into the business, he has 220 satisfied customers who have ordered
for fresh fish through his website. Richard is excited to enter the online
business world.
“Everything is available online, so why not fish? The
business is growing on word of mouth and every day we get more orders coming
in. Since my grandfather and father are into the business, we have our own
trawlers and the fresh catch is updated on the website. We deliver the fish and
if required, we also clean it free of cost,” says Richard. He has three people
working under him to deliver fish in Vasco.
These youngsters prove that with the right education, a
healthy interest in current trends and an inherent curiosity, not to forget
support from family and friends, not even the sky is the limit.
