BITS Pilani Faculty members win IBM Innovation Awards

Prof Navneet Goyal and Dr Poonam Goyal,  of Computer Science Department of BITS Pilani  and Dr Anil Rai from Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi were honored with IBM 2010 Scalable Data Analytics for a Smarter Planet Innovation Award. Besides getting a cash award of US $ 15000, the team members would get a chance to present their work at an IBM sponsored workshop to be held in November 2011. 

The award has been given in recognition of the significance of the research concept submitted by the team to develop a smart crop management system using data analytics. In all, 17 concepts were awarded the Smarter Planet Innovation Award this year and the concept submitted by Prof Navneet Goyal and the team was the only one selected from India. Other awardees this year were also from prestigious universities such as Yale, University of Maryland, University of Oxford, University of  North Carolina, University of California Riverside,  University of Edinburgh etc. 

Smart Crop Management System proposed by Prof Navneet Goyal and the team envisages a Crop Yield Prediction System which will give indications about the harvest and would help the government in planning for export/import in case of surplus/shortage. Besides, it envisages an Early Warning System which is meant for farmers to warn about crop diseases and inclement weather conditions.