Rourkela: With two alumni of NIT-Rourkela securing a patent for their invention- an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) which mimics the complex flapping motion of a bird, the Uri-like drone innovation could find a place in the armed forces’ armoury.

The inventors- Debendra Pradhan and Biswajit Swain, both aged 27, claim their advanced Ornithopter design and technique promise wide applications in defence espionage and surveillance apart from civil applications in aerial surveillance, farm and airfield protection from bird intrusion, data collection and forecasting.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) task force has started a first-of-its-kind study on the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in the country.

It will look prospectively at the incidence of snakebite covering 13 states, including Himachal Pradesh, in five zones of India with a population of 84 million.

The other states are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura.

An article on the study ‘ICMR task force project, survey of the incidence, mortality, morbidity and socio-economic burden of snakebite in India: A study protocol’ was published in the international research journal Plos One on August 22.

Odisha bagged two awards in the World Robotics Championship 2022 held at New Delhi on August 21 and 22.

Robo-Odisha, the team of 10 students from Kiddy Kids Premium School, Jajpur Road, Jajpur along with Captain Rasmita Mohanty and Manas Ranjan Mohanty, Principal of the school participated in the event. The team bagged the first prize War Robot design and second prize in the Junior Robo Race Challenge Competition. This is the First International Award for Odisha in World Robotics Championships held so far.

The team comprising Anikesh Dash, Ayush Nayak, Sarbojeet Mohapatra, Purujit Padhi, Hrishiraj Haibru, Kishore Kumar Jyotish, Anwesh Panda, Mayank Kumar Gupta, GM Kamya and Sarah Mohanty had started preparing their robots 3 months back in the school’s Robotic Lab.