CAM Society Case to Build "Design & Make Ecosystem" in Technology Schools

HARLAL MALI: Hi, all. I am Harlal Singh Mali from India, Jaipur. Malaviya National Institute of Technology. I'm an associate professor there. My session ID is EDU60141-- 601814.

I shall be talking about an ecosystem which we have developed in our university and department called CAM Society. How this CAM Society has helped our students, particularly undergrad students, to enhance their skills. Thank you for being in this room.

Going next, I am from the city Jaipur, where-- those of you who have gone to India, it's in the northern side of India, close to Delhi. There is a circuit called Tourist Triangle-- Delhi, Jaipur, Agra. The way Agra has the Taj Mahal. We have palace called Hawa Mahal, Palace of Winds. And lots of tourists flock in this region. We are in the heart of the city.

Coming to my Institute, that's Malaviya National Institute of Technology. It is also one of the centrally located universities or technology school in the Jaipur city. It was established in 1963 as the Malaviya Regional Engineering College, Jaipur. Malaviya name is prefixed with the name of a famous educationist and freedom fighter in India, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya ji.

And since then, it was working like a regional engineering college, like 14 other regional engineering colleges. But in 2002, it has been named as National Institute of Technology. And in 2007, [INAUDIBLE] became NIT, MNIT, and then Institute of National Importance through Act of Parliament. It's a federally funded university or technological school by the Ministry of Education.

We have a ranking system where around 2,500 engineering schools in India are ranked. And based on this, we are ranked as number 37. As far as school is concerned, this tech school is concerned, 12,000 students or nearly 12,000 students have already graduated. And the total area of the campus is around 300-plus acres.

I am an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. I also graduated from an [INAUDIBLE] school, and then worked in the aviation industry for 10 years. After that, I moved to academics after doing my masters and PhD from Punjab Engineering College and Punjab University Chandigarh. Since then, 17-odd years, I spent in academics.

I intend to do research, along with the academics, teaching, mechanical engineering subjects. We could file some eight patents, including one recent US patent. Four of the patents have been awarded already. There are lots of funding research, which we could, collectively, in a group, we could get from including one from the NSF in collaboration with two US universities.

As it is, we have published papers. 12 PhDs have already graduated under my supervision, also M.Tech theses. I did setup a lab in my university called Advanced Manufacturing & Mechatronics Lab. And this CAM Society also was founded by me 12 years back.

My intention is to use technology for the society. And in this direction, we have set-- I did set up a startup called Jaipur Club Foot Private Limited, which particularly addresses to the club foot treatment experience through contemporary technology interventions.

Coming to the talk again, let's see what is the ecosystem of technology schools in India, whereby mostly the agenda is to transfer knowledge. And this has been helping a lot to the students. And how this has helped us in graduating from one of the good graduates we had been proud of in the whole country through these technology schools.

So when we talk about this knowledge versus skill in technology school, particularly undergrad degree, there is always a debate. But there is always a saying that knowledge provides the foundation for any skill development. All skill developments are based on the knowledge. And through this ecosystem, we all can see that there are a couple of-- but if we look at Fortune 500 companies in the world over, 50-plus, their CEOs have come from these schools. So that means this is doing good, particularly for the knowledge base, and of course, skill base also.

But there is always a debate about the bottom of the pyramid, which we want to talk about, because if knowledge is acquired, that's fine. But the knowledge has to be amplified through the use of skills, so more and more skills practiced by the person, or the graduate student will always help him or her to transform himself or herself into this expertise. So the synergy between the two is preferred, synergy between knowledge and skill is preferred.

If I look for a typical curriculum, a B.Tech in mechanical engineering, it looks like this in India. What we see here, the credit structure is like usually there are-- it's a four-year program I'm talking about. The program core courses are as high as 45%, or close to that. There are elective courses. That means students will have a choice to choose those courses based on his or her specialization. We call them as program electives. So program core and program electives roughly make around 70% of the courses.

And then within this curriculum, there is a project component. That's 7%. Management courses comprise around 2%. Open elective courses, which are offered by other departments, say allied departments, we call them as open electives. Maybe around 4%. In the initial start of the degree, the student is given some basic science knowledge. That's around 8%, like physics, chemistry, environmental sciences, biological sciences. Engineering sciences also cover around 10%, allied branches. And social sciences courses take around 3%.

So this is the whole pie of these 180 to 196 credits, out of which every semester, six months, the student has to take around 20 to 25 credits, which wants the person to contact in classroom around 25 to 30 hours per week. If we look at the course structure, this is important. Why? Because around 65% of courses are theory courses. And 22% courses are practical courses. Around 11% of courses are project-based, and 2% are seminar kind of courses. So this practical includes the industry exposure also.

Moving next, when I look at this graduate schools, I just want to talk about that they are meant for immediate employment. And most of the immediate employment is done through campus placements. So out of roughly, say, 1 million technical graduates per annum, which are produced by India, people say that most of them are unemployed or unemployable. This is because of the lack of skills in comparison to the knowledge.

And to understand this, I brought this graphics to you. And this is from a federal body called AICTE, All India Council of Technical Education, which the data shows that the size of the graduating batch is close to 1 million nearly, out of which around 28% to 41% of students are getting placement in industry within the graduating year.

So that means lots of students are remaining unplaced. There may be so many reasons for this. The student may not be interested, or he or she may be going for higher studies, or maybe they will opt for some of their other activities, like associated with their families. But this is the fact. And many of them are interested. Say at least it should be 60%-plus placement level.

So we look for the reasons. The reasons are many, as you discussed. But one reason is the lack of skill. The lack of skill could be one reason for this poor placement, or low level of placements, immediate placement, or let's call it campus placement.

And one reason people are attributing this towards this lack of skill. So why at all the student has to know skill or have lots of skill other than the knowledge which he or she is knowing? One is the skills are dynamic. They can-- dynamically, the student can work in the dynamic environment. Lots of changes are happening in industry technology-wise. If those skills are not-- environmental skills are not there with the student, he or she will not be able to excel.

As we talked in the previous slide, this knowledge gets amplified with the help of skill. So the critical thinking, analysis skill, or evaluation skill, or reasoning skills are more obtained through critical thinking as this is what is thought upon. Holistic development is also obtained through the skills. So beyond academic if the student is able to foster the personal development and confidence through holistic growth, skills play a major role.

If the student is skillful, more and more innovation is done, or more and more creativity we can expect from his professional life through innovation or modern workspaces. Networking skills, they are also a skill. So they open doors for the valuable connections and collaborative learning. Then comes this, the lifelong learning, again, it's a part of skill, so that if the student cultivates this lifelong learning or mindset for continuous improvement, it will help him or her in the placement of careers throughout.

Moving next, how this enhancement of skill in engineering graduates is possible. One reason, one way is when we integrate this design, design mostly, say, initial stage, a thought process, which is part of the [INAUDIBLE], has to be integrated with the design and make skills. And this integration of design and making skill can solve the problem of skill lack. So what we see, lots of conceptual ideas which a student might have has to be converted into useful products through the knowledge of designing and making skill.

Of course, we need platforms, platforms or the tools. And Fusion 360 is one such tool, which is freely available, up to the year 2010, when [INAUDIBLE] happened-- lots of [INAUDIBLE] happened with AICTE with different firms. And one such memorandum of understanding was with AICTE and Autodesk. And since then, the students are able to access these Autodesk tools, which includes Fusion 360 also in these technology schools.

Now, platform is one, and second is the ecosystem, because ecosystem is also important. And ecosystem is there in the school or in the department, or with the students. This knowledge and skill can be enhanced together.

Now, talking about the second objective, let's talk about how the Fusion system can integrate design and manufacturing processes by undergraduates beyond the curriculum. So coming to the curriculum, we talk that curriculum is, say, a four-year program, whereby a student has to learn, work with, or subjects are taught to him or her.

Now, if this Fusion 360 is taught or integrated during the curriculum, this will help him or her to move ahead. And the skill levels are enhanced. Now, when we talk about this platform called Fusion 360, it synergizes the design and manufacturing ecosystem. It enables the student to bring their creative ideas to fruition, not only through the modeling and design, but the student is able to do iterative designs, or the software provides, or whereby he or she can choose the optimized design through the platform called generative design, or, of course, the optimum ideas are provided through multiple simulation tools, which are integral to the platform called Fusion 360.

One important part is to realize the manufacturing. The student can be able to convert his or her CAD material into a manufacturable file format. And this manufacturing is also supported by this tool.

Coming next, when we talk about this Fusion 360 platform, it does the 360-- this 3D design and modeling aspect. It can be started from sketch to the assembly, or then, as I told, generative design.

The parts can be rendered. Simulated results can be obtained. And finally, completed manufacturing, not only in subtractive manufacturing, but in additive manufacturing, or advanced manufacturing, or whatever. The source of energy one wants to use can be used with.

Next, moving from sketch to CAD, the important part is a student, once he or she has the basic concept in his head, the thought process, those sketches are drawn. Now, those sketches can be directly converted into CAD modeling. Similarly, those CAD models can be assembled, or the parts could be assembled using the platform.

And as I told, those parts, those assemblies, if they need to be further optimized, tools like generative design help them. So this is an original design. Now, this can be optimized to a level using this generative design platform, whereby the generative design will look like this, where it has been optimized to an extent, that minimum material, without compromising the strength is obtained.

Coming next to the manufacturing aspect, say the part, which has been designed, it can be taken up to VFX design for X and X in case of manufacturing is design for manufacture. Say if one goes for additive manufacturing, so part can be modified according to the additive manufacturing, and toolpath planning can be done. And of course, the process simulation can be done using the platform.

On the other hand, the subtractive toolpath planning can also be done, whereby any milling or turning tool can be used, or machine simulations can be provided. One can get the NC generated part program in the post-processing aspect. And of course, those part programs can be fed to the CNC machine, and manufacturing can be done.

So this is related to the Fusion 360. So it has capabilities of design and modeling, which is highly user friendly, collaborative skills within a student team is sitting across the institute or intra-institute, this can be worked with, because this is on a cloud platform, like most of the tools these days. Coming to the visualization of the design, of course, it has wonderful tools through simulation, CAM, or rendering. And finally, it supports multiple devices so that it can access design on multiple devices as per the team's requirement, which are sitting at distances.

Moving next, what we in MNIT has done, we have integrated this Fusion 360 degree-- sorry Fusion 360 platform on these courses, and the curriculum has been integrated. The first semester, say, the first year, when the student comes along with so many courses, one course is the practical geometry, which every mechanical engineering student takes up, or all the engineering student takes up, whereby the student is taught the engineering drawing and sketching. This is both the theory and lab course, and whereby the basics of practical geometries and 2D sketching are taught.

So usually, Fusion 360, the classic model of AutoCAD 2D format can be introduced to the students, and they can be practicing. And those practical geometry theories are taught to the students. So this way, the Fusion 360 has been integrated with the first semester course.

Then coming to the second year, again, in the third semester, there is in mechanical engineering, there is a course called computer machine drawing. Earlier both the courses were taught on paper, machine drawing, as well as sketching. Now, this is being taught through Fusion 360 for the past 15 years, I suppose. And this is a pure live practice, whereby the 3D modeling assembly and creating lots of drafts. A practice is taught, along with understanding the nitty gritties of machine drawing.

Then comes the fifth semester. If I look at the whole semester only, first, third, and fifth, fifth semester is third year. So another course is called CAD/CAM course, which is, again, a theory and lab course. So students practice the fundamentals of CAD. What are those curves? What is the mathematics behind those curves?

And then drafting, modeling, and those model parts are converted to CAM through the part program. So the basics of CNC, CAD to CAM part program, in particularly medial removal processes, CNC. Lathe and milling is taught in this particular course. So Fusion 360 supports here also.

Coming to the sixth semester, that is because most of the core courses are covered in up to third year. That is sixth semester. Another subject is taught. We call this course as advanced machining and additive manufacturing. This is also a theory and lab course, both. So CAD to CAM part programming, not only in material removal, but additive manufacturing, and even a laser program or a wire EDM. All those courses are taught here. And then they are practiced in the lab also.

So another course here in the sixth semester is the computer engineering lab, or CA lab where the student is able to do all the computer-aided engineering work through initially the Fusion 360 support. It's an early stage simulation is taught here. And then the teachers take up two other simulation tools also, based on their interest.

Other courses which are integrated to Fusion 360 are minor and major projects, and also honors programs, whereby multiple tools are integrated, including Fusion 360. So this integration is done. But the problem lies in the practice. The limitation lies in the practice, because the practice is-- because once you are engaged for almost 6 to 7 hours per day in the classrooms Monday to Friday, the problem lies in how to-- where we'll be able to-- when we'll be able to practice. And this is where the ecosystem of CAM [INAUDIBLE] comes in.

So our third objective is to discover how the club ecosystem can help undergrad students to innovate, understand, and before that, practice, so that a useful functional prototype can be made by them. When we talk about this, the student's skill enhancing ecosystem is taken care by this CAM Society, which is as old as 10 years. This Cam Society, it is like an ecosystem, which has been developed particularly for undergrad students, whereby the senior students learn from the junior students.

So initially, I have to take the level of those in the early stages, some of the volunteer students, and those are the brightest ones. And once they quickly learn, they help me, teaching even the junior students, those interested ones. And then lots of workshops are conducted And we'll talk about that how the ecosystem works.

So coming to this CAM Society, what are the major activities? So one activity is conducting workshop on Fusion 360, other than so many other activities. So the workshops are conducted. At least three or four workshops are conducted in a semester. So a group size of 20 to 30 students join, and it is held by me. It is led by me, but lots of helping comes from the senior students who are already those with those skills, and who are the office bearers of the CAM Society.

Then there are other workshops, like design thinking, intellectual property rights, mechatronics-based tools. Those workshops are also carried out other than the Fusion 360 workshops. During these workshops, the students are further. So they do a lot of practice, how the practice comes up when they are given these problem statements and competitions.

So based on those, when they solve these problem statements, or take part in the inherent competitions, or, say, other national/international competitions, they form the group. And they take part in these competitions. They learn a lot. And of course, during that time, online resources or other outreach activities are introduced to them. And they are highly receptive to learning this.

Finally, they have to go for hands-on, which is based on CAD-based or CAM-based tools. So these are the various activities of the CAM Society. Outcome is very good in the last 9 to 10 years. What we could see is that in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, whereby around 1,500-plus students have been trained.

So our intake is under 20 or so. So almost every student in first year who joins is a beneficiary of these workshops. Of course, 10% to 12% students are the office bearers. And many of the groups are formed for competitions. So those office bearers, we call them mentors. Senior students are mentors, and the junior students are volunteers. And because of these, 20-plus co-workshops have been conducted, or 30-plus competitions have been conducted through this CAM Society ecosystem.

And the outcome is wonderful. We could start two startups. Lots of publication could be done by these students, research publication. And three patents have also been filed as an outcome of this CAM Society ecosystem.

Going next, these are the workshops and activities which I'm trying to show here. What you see here is a workshop on Introduction to Fusion 360. It's a popular one. It's an early stage workshop, whereby it happens those weak students who are not able to practice during their routine curriculum, they come here and practice. And they are helped by other volunteers.

Then, say, for example, we can talk about workshop on advanced Fusion 360, and of course, workshop on generative design, workshop on FEA analysis on Fusion 360, and courses on workshops on advanced manufacturing technologies or processes. So this is the usual sequence.

And we enroll the student for, say, this first workshop. Those who are finding themselves comfortable, they move to the next one. Those who are still having lots of-- it's highly informal, and loosely organized activity, which happens mostly beyond the classroom in the evening hours, when the laboratories are free, and, of course, on weekends and holidays.

So we don't have to force the student to come to the classroom. They themselves come. Volunteers are helping them. This is the-- the whole aim is to inspire students towards creativity throughout the year. So they themselves will tell us that, our examinations are complete, and we have a free slot like this, and we can move on to this diet, where the workshop can be conducted.

So those permissions are obtained. And they're lots of interactive workshops and product development competitions for the undergrad. The junior students are done. And the important part is they are first to be placed in the competitions in their placements also.

The students learn about this CAD, CAM, CAE through the series of workshops, and of course, lots of hands-on studies and so on practices are done. And projects are given in these workshops. So that's why the ecosystem is helping the students.

Moving next, this could be a typical, giving to the first-year students, a problem statement, whereby the problem statement is given when the design is from the sketch a chair, an easy chair with two armrests, a revolving chair. So once we tell them, they creatively come out with lots of designs.

A few designs are selected and maybe awarded. And then those-- so these are all very early stage problem statements. As the student graduate, we give them some complicated problem statements involving design thinking and other aspects so that they come out with lots of creative solutions.

Once those solutions are done, the designs are done, they have this ecosystem whereby this laboratory [INAUDIBLE], which advanced manufacturing and mechatronics. They use these tools to prepare the components, do hands-on practice, and of course, I'll tell you how the ecosystem works in the sustained mode.

So there are a couple of tools, which are not only for this activity, but so many other activities. But because these tools are free on weekends or in the evening hours, the CAM Society students have liberty to practice them, so like micromachining, . CNC milling, VMCs, whereby a complete automated cycle can be developed by the student and practiced, and the part is manufactured, a machine, which is simply EDM. [INAUDIBLE] EDM, which the mechatronics group of students, they have come out, modified it to ADG, then centerless grinding, and likewise, the enhancement takes place.

Similarly, profilometry and advanced finishing solutions, those hands-ons are done in this lab. So what I'm trying to show is those students who practice first in the workshops, and then they take part in our local competitions within the CAM Society ecosystem. And then further, they take part in competitions involving national and international competitions. Say, for example, this silver medal, the students were in [INAUDIBLE] competition. They take part in the bootcamp.

So those selected from these groups are motivated to take, and of course, Autodesk India people, particularly Dr. Ramesh [INAUDIBLE], who is here. They are helping us to select these students nationally. Of course, not by my name, but out of the competition or the process they have. So our students are-- readily, they go to these bootcamps, present their skills, take part in the 3D student challenge, or, of course, winning the competition, not only in India, out of India, including multiple platforms, say, as Society of Automotive Engineers, and various other competitions.

So let's move on to the next objective, and the final objective, whereby how this is sustained for 10 years. This ecosystem has to be sustained, not only for maybe one or two years, then things change, but we were able to sustain it for a long, long years, almost 10-plus years. This is because in the CAM Society, we did work on this pyramid.

And what does the pyramid say? I'm sitting over here as a professor in charge of the lab, and professor in charge of the CAM Society club. There are lots of clubs in the campus, but this club, I'm talking about. I have some three to five PhD scholars working on their PhD theses, and then equal seven to eight M. Tech students, which our group is out of the 20, I get around five students as the M. Tech, or master of science, or master of technology students.

So this pyramid, and then, of course, the B. Tech student or the undergrad student teams are there. So if, say, I won, there are three PhD students, and then there are six M. Tech students, and then there are at least 12 to 15 undergrad students, B. Tech students. Those 12 to 15 students will be in different groups. And they start working-- they get associated with this particular group.

So one PhD student who is in one domain is also associated, though he becomes not only-- I don't want to pass the clear restriction to this. I've just formed the team, and motivated the team, and let the team collectively work. So this way, this has sustained.

And the important part is we need funds. Of course, the funds, I have to spend lots of time other than my teaching to this writing the research proposals. And these funded research proposals, as I told in the beginning, from various funding agencies, they help me float throughout the year for meeting the expenses, not only for those consumables for these students, but maintenance of the equipment and buying new equipment for the students.

Similarly, once the ecosystem has taken place, industries come to us for solving their problems so that we can charge some money to them. And of course, this floating takes place. And the institute ecosystem also helps us. For that, we have this office of research and consultancy. There are norms, what kind of overheads we need to submit, and accordingly, this ecosystem is helping.

Coming to the cases now, I would like to go over a few cases, particularly out of CAM Society. So say this was a very early stage case, 2013. So when i was forming the first group of CAM Society, I told the students, when they came in the seventh semester to me, [INAUDIBLE] students, I joined in 2012, and it was the case of 2013, or late December 2012.

Those students came, and they told me, sir, we want to do a major project. So I talked to them. Then let's see what is the problem statement for you. So I told them, let's see. You think of a problem. Then the next day, they came up, sir, you give us the problem. It's better. We'll work on that particular problem, because the time is limited.

So I might have observed something very often. I told them, let's see. There are products like prams or strollers. They are meant for transportation, where the baby has to reside in, the baby can sleep. And those things are there, so sleeping away from the home, remain a safe and secure environment.

So now let's see there are problems with this pram. Say, if I am having a child, and both me and my wife are working, so what I have to do is, evening hours, I have to take the baby to the nearby area, to they, say, park. If I stay very-- my residence is very close to the park, I can just go and come back and single-handedly take the pram to the park and come back.

But the problem is if I have to travel on the way, maybe a car, or a bus, or a tram, and then move to that place, and come back. So a single person, a single parent, or the caregiver will not be able to maneuver with this plan. That's the problem statement.

So I told them, what could be the solution for this? So even I invite you to give me your inputs that say a single person handling the pram with the child, and traveling also, what could be your input? So well, I'll be happy if you raise your hand and tell me anything related to this.

So let's see. We did the brainstorming. And the students came up with the collective idea through CAM Society. And what was the idea is like this one. So we started calling it PramBag. You can put some music here.

So what you see is a pram, as well as bag. And this is possible based on this brainstorming of this CAM Society ecosystem. Of course, we use Fusion 360. I think we used the time inventor. Then we moved to Fusion 360 in the coming years. So this PramBag caters to the needs of the urban parent. And it is a multi-purpose convertible. It's not an electronic product. It's a basic mechanism, whereby one can convert into a pram to bag and bag to pram.

This was the first prototype we developed in 2013. Of course, the students were very into the-- As it is, during the end of the project final year, when they graduate, and their placements come up. They invited this newspaper agency, Times of India, and they wrote in the article that this is how the problem is being solved.

Then all the students, we filed a patent also that particular day, and PramBag caters to the needs of this urban parent traveling with their baby in unfavorable surroundings. It can convert it into a minimal ease-- into a pram and pram to bag. The level of comfort and safety of the child and parent are very important in this case. The travel with the baby hands-free in a crowded place is the catch line of this particular product. So this product is the first outcome of this CAM Society.

Moving next, we can talk about the new case, which is a little more serious. And this was a 2018 case study. But I want you to please pay attention for this typical, different problem. See the problem of the clubfoot treatment, clubfoot treatment.

We engineers might not be aware, but at least through our families and through some distant relative, or our observation, we know that there is a problem like this, which is congenital. Congential means by birth, congenital. So Congenital Talipes Equinus Virus is what the medical name for clubfoot, CTEV.

Except nobody knows it's an idiopathic problem, the medical clinicians call it. Idiopathic means the reasons are not known. It's a congenital problem. What is the problem? The foot of a newborn baby points downward and inward. Downward is known as equinus, and inward is known as varus. And of course, this joint is known as talus. So this is known as talipes joint, or talus.

So this is a problem statement. In fact, how we were introduced to this problem was-- I was introduced to this problem was we were working on an NSF project for remanufacturing of Jaipur Fort. So we were interacting a lot with the clinicians here in India, in Jaipur, and multiple centers. And because those clinicians were also handling these CTEV patients, and one of the clinician was-- when I saw the babies were crying, and even the doctor was very, very upset.

Why? Because a senior doctor, an orthopedic surgeon, minimum MS, he was getting irritated. He told me that this is the most irritating work, because the babies come, and the parents don't care and don't support. And some of them don't follow the language. And some of them are illiterate. And then they are not in a position to follow my instructions. They remove the cast. They remove the brace. So the treatment is known as a non-invasive method. They hardly do any surgery here.

What is the requirement? When this foot is inverted, they desire the patient to come immediately, just newborn. Say, for example, within a week of the child's birth, he's supposed to come to the clinician. Then the clinician palpates and identifies the talus bone. And when identification, he or she gives the necessary movements to the foot, and a POP medical plaster is bound around this for one week.

The next week, again, the plaster is removed, and of course, the next correction. They call it correction stages. Repetitive casting through correction stages are done. And of course, likewise, it happens continuously for at least five to seven weeks. Sometime it is more than that.

If the clinician's instructions are not followed, or the cast is not properly done, it leads to lots of issues with a newborn baby. And just imagine a newborn baby is just freshly, tender skin. There are lots of skins. And even kids in that age don't cry, because even they cry, there is no tears in their eyes, because the tear glands come later on.

This is one part, the correction part. They slightly do a medical procedure if required, whereby they call it this Achilles tenotomy, whereby this Achilles cartilage is released. It's not mandatory, but in some cases, they do. Some cases, they don't do it. It's a small procedure. And then they, again, do the plastering.

After the plastering is done, this correction is done to this stage, the baby is given this bilateral brace. This is known as FAB, Foot Abduction Brace. This is also known as DB splint. This is for more than two years. Two years, 2 and 1/2 years till the time the baby is in it. Growth takes place. And the foot doesn't relapse to the clubfoot condition.

So this is what the treatment, and people call it the gold standard treatment, given by Dr. Ponseti, the Frenchman. And across the world, this treatment is being followed. The best part is a very good treatment it is, and non-invasive. But the problem is the number of times the patient has to come to the doctor, and the age old method of treatment, whereby the POPs are used-- Plaster of Paris is used. And this kind of bilateral brace is used. Bilateral brace gives lots of stigma, I think, to a newborn baby, whereby both the legs are tied. Even the problem is in one hand-- one leg only, but both the legs are tied up.

So we were talking. When I saw this, we started reading about this particular problem, talking to the clinicians. And further, we saw that when we do the literature review and study, we found that 140 million children are born in 2019 worldwide with this-- say 140 million children are born worldwide. This is what data says. And 1 out of 800 children is born with this clubfoot or CTEV problem.

So the CTEV, or clubfoot, is the most common, this musculoskeletal birth defect out of so many other birth defect to the kids. Around 175,000, babies are born with this clubfoot globally. And out of this, 70% are in developing or underdeveloped countries. 78% babies are in these countries, low and middle income countries.

Even in India itself, there are 50,000 babies are born with this clubfoot every year. And about half of them are like having bilateral defect. Half of them are having unilateral defect. That means either leg is affected. In case of 50%, both the legs are affected in case of [INAUDIBLE].

So what we could see through the basic observation and talking to clinicians, and even through literature, that this particular treatment is not taken very happily by the clinicians, because those topnotch doctors, they are always loaded with the patients. They think that they have much more bigger things to do. So this physician training and expertise-- it's more like skilled work. And this quality of treatment is available only in the metro cities.

The treatment cost, even if the treatment cost is not that costly-- it can be made free by NGOs or government. But the indirect cost is very high. So particularly, government hospitals, this is free, but the patient traveling from their homes to villages to the city, and not only one, two times, at least 20 times in 2 and 1/2 years of duration. Multiple and continuous visits to the clinical centers is really an indirect cost also.

Another problem is the social stigma, whereby the bilateral brace for unilateral cases is also challenged. And if the patient has to travel through a public transport, people look at the patient. And there are lots of-- the parents feel the stigma for this. Sometimes the parents-- it depends upon the family's background and all those-- they feel frustrated. And this pain leads to the discontinuation of the treatment. They don't do the follow up. And the skin dehydration and ulcer is another issue.

So what we see is lots of untreated bilateral clubfoot in India, or in LMIC countries. In MNIT itself, I have one third-year student of chemical engineering who is having this both affect CTEV, but not treated yet. That means, can this technology of the modern day be used for helping these patients who are away from these major cities, away from-- and lots of travel they need to do.

So we need to understand their cases, not only for the patient case. We carried out a design thinking-based parents' journey mapping. And this was the case. They identified seven points. Travel is one point. So what is travel? Its action is to visit to the clinic so many times. And then the first person is the orthopedic surgeon. He or she does the counseling, and trips, and evaluates the foot condition.

Then once the correction is done, it is given-- supported by the paramedical staff or counseling, as well as assistant in the treatment. And then once the correction is done, it goes to the physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor for counseling treatment, and particularly the brace.

So his support system is P&O. The brace manufacturing and all those things are done through him. And of course, another utility is the home, whereby the feeding and bathing is also part of it. So these are the actions we identified. And we asked the questions, say, for example, what patients are asking the treatment duration cost and complexities. Usually, the patient asks them to the clinicians-- the cost maintenance, or the brace cost, or the importance of the protocols. And of course, the brace cost and the materials for the P&O.

So when the patients tell to the doctor-- ask the doctor, will my child be all right? If the doctor says yes, 100%, your child will be walking like a normal baby very soon, a normal human being very soon, within two, three years, they feel happy.

But the problem is there are lots of pain points. And one pain point is this during the travel, the social stigma. Orthopedic surgeon, the treatment cost, duration, and extensive visits. Paramedical staff, the baby cries during the cast. PMR level, the bilateral brace for unilateral deformity. P&O case, fitting the brace properly. And of course, at home, also lots of discomfort, including problems in carrying the cast and the brace.

So the scope is a lot. Can we reduce the travel? Can we reduce the cost and travel with the orthopedic surgeon? Can we reduce this-- remove the cast from the treatment? Can we go for a unilateral brace? Or what is the indicator of a proper fit of the brace? And can we increase the comfort at home? So these are all scope of improvement for this particular case.

When we see-- another problem is most are bored, because most of you are engineers here. But the problem is when we have to talk to the clinicians, there are lots of issues. They talk in their own language. And we talk in our own language.

So even all the CAM Society students, I sit with them for half an hour. I tell them this particular slide, say, how the engineers can learn the foot biomechanics. Say, for example, we all know the x, y, z planes and the axis. And we also call, whether it is robotics or aviation, we call that pitching. Pitch down. Pitch up. Rolling-- roll in, roll out, or yawing, yaw in, yaw out. So those are the motions we had been trained with.

On the other hand, the medicines or the medical professionals are calling them as, if we call them, dorsiflexion, the pitch up, and the plantar flexion, the pitch down. So those terms are to be understood, and not only these terms for the motion, but even for the planes.

Say, for example, we call it the planes-- they call it transverse, sagittal, or frontal, according to our x, y, and z planes. So the first thing is to understand. Go into their shoes. And let an analogy set between these two cases.

Then these two different domains of professions. And of course, learning in this case, say, for example, what is a typical foot, healthy foot will be having a motion of ankle. So this could be in plantar flexion. That means pitch down. It will be having these many degrees, 37 to 45 degrees. Similarly, the foot can move upward from 20 to 29 degrees.

Similarly, inversion is inverse in our rolling in, or inversion is rolling out. Similarly, adduction is-- ADD adduction is inward, and abduction is outward. So this treatment is done. And the Ponseti method has clearly described the first fit has to be supinated the foot. Supinated means the person has to-- the clinician has to do three motions together.

And then supinate the foot, and then, of course, do the plaster of Paris. And in the next case, they do abduction, abduction, abduction. And of course, when they do this Abduction, various castings are given. And then a FBI abduction brace is attached. So this is done manually.

So can we do something for our case whereby a unilateral orthosis can be made? I just want you to talk about the kind of solution for this particular case with all the pain points addressed not only at the baby level, the parent level, the clinician level, of course, orthopedic surgeon, or at the PMR level. So any input from your side will be very good.

But I just converted it into a problem statement. And based on the problem statement, we could come-- our students could come with this solution. Let me show you this video. I think this is not embedded. Yeah, it is.

What do you see? It's a unilateral orthosis, which will have the same degrees of freedom, which are given-- which are done by the clinician. So that means forefoot will have free motion. In-foot will have three motions.

And this orthosis follows the disease foot. And then every week, the whole idea is every week, under the direction of a clinician, any paramedic, locally available paramedic, or any informed parent can do these manipulations. Under the guidance of the clinicians, of course, with video call.

And not only this-- if this kind of device is stabilized, we can move on to do the data acquisition, measurement of the continuous measurement of the foot correction, or [INAUDIBLE] positions. So first, this mechanical device has to be established, which has to be unilateral, look like an ordinary shoes, and just understanding so that it doesn't give any empathy-- any serious trauma to the baby during his or her life.