A Random Class in IIT Madras: Crash Proof Pani Pooris

Yesterday we were given an interesting problem by our Professor in the Social Entrepreneurship class. The subject is about innovation and all of us are expected to design some socially useful product or process by the end of this course. More on this later. Hmm...the problem .

The problem was to throw a pani-poori from the top floor of DoMS (dept. of management studies) building and land it without cracking (not a single crack...it will be tested) on the ground. The DoMS building is four-storey.... about 50 feet. So it was a little tough. And to make sure we dont just wrap up the pani poori in lots of paper or some other stuff to cushion it, and then claim a solution, the Professor added a condition: The pani poori should be visible all throughout.

We were given one chart paper, few straws, a cello tape, thread, rubber bands, paper cutter, and bangles to execute the task. Time given was about 30 mins.

We started, and after considering a few designs we finally decided on a glider-basket design with bangle support that Arun came up with and started the construction. First straws were tied on the bangle to get this

Then another bangle was added to complete the basic basket

Alex quickly designed a basic glider, curved it a little bit and tied threads to it. We wrapped plastic tape around the basket and used rubber band and shredded thread pieces as cushion. The fragile pani poori was kept in the basket, padded and cushioning provided. The final thing looked something like this

Yes we forgot to write the team name and other things...so some painting and grafitti...we thought.....heavenly Pani poori.... or Herculean Pani poori... pani poori from Mars....etc etc

Finally

Our Crash Proof pani poori was ready for testing. Meanwhile i went around the class to see what other junta was upto. AND almost every other group had copied our design.....all had parachutes or gliders with baskets of different sizes (but same cuboid shape). Our basket was the best looking one. Period. Also, we were the first group to complete the design.

Interestingly Patel (or Tarun Mehta ......name given by his parents ...we gave him a better one) came up with an interesting peice. It looked like a sci-fi crash proof pani poori. A space age design. It was a tetrahedron made from straws with the pani poori hanging inside it. The pani poori was tied to a bangle through a tape and the bangle was tied to straws through threads. It looked something like this.

They also completed it quickly, and Patel covered it with paper on three sides ( I think to provide air-drag) and then the World's second crash proof pani poori was ready (first was ours...as u saw earlier). See it here with patel's innovator smile and sense of satisfaction. We created something new......something that had never existed before.

The testing will take place on Monday evening at DoMS building sharp at 4 p.m. If you are interested come for it... otherwise pray for our success. There are a total of 8 teams. And we hope that our "Rajaram" pani poori will make it.