Students from Dakshina Kannada showcased working AI and IoT projects for waste management, crop protection, public safety and border monitoring at Synergia’26, a three-day innovation festival hosted by Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management at Adyar in Mangaluru.
The projects included an automated waste segregator, a crop disease detection platform, a network-independent safety beacon and low-cost systems designed to detect border intrusions and operate surveillance rovers. The prototypes were presented by high school and pre-university students at the annual festival.
Five Class 12 students from St Aloysius Pre-University College developed Eco Bin AI to address waste segregation at the point of disposal. The system uses computer vision, load sensors and a four-quadrant rotary carousel to classify plastic, metal and paper in 1.2 seconds. It also isolates contaminated waste, while a QR-code system allows users to earn redeemable points.
Team lead Arol Sequeira said the project was designed to prevent cross-contamination and keep dry recyclable material clean. The system was developed by Arol, Ashfar Abdul Khader, Alwin Sijo, Thejaswi K and Prithvi D Suvarna.
Agrisense, developed by students from Padua Pre-University College, combines soil-moisture sensors and machine learning to identify crop diseases from photographs. The team said the platform detects leaf diseases with 97% accuracy. It also recommends crops based on soil and weather conditions and provides multilingual treatment advice.
The project was developed by Shaina Lisha Monthero, Diganth U Poojary, Glanston D’Souza and Deekshitha R P. Its design links field-level sensing with image-based diagnosis, bringing agricultural monitoring into the same technology showcase as civic and public-safety systems.
Women’s safety in poorly connected areas was the focus of Thameri – Safety Beacon Network 2.0, developed by four students of Sharada Shubhodaya Vidyalaya in Moodushedde. The system uses solar-powered streetlights that operate without mobile networks or Wi-Fi. Pressing an emergency button activates nearby sirens, alerts control rooms and illuminates routes towards the nearest safe zone.
Team member Nihal C A said the system was intended to guide people towards a safe zone even in areas with limited connectivity. The project places local lighting, emergency alerts and route guidance within a single network-independent system.
Carmel Pre-University College’s Team Quantumbots presented Border Suraksha Kawach and the Mushak Rover. Border Suraksha Kawach is a low-cost system designed to detect human intrusion along unfenced borders. The Mushak Rover allows soldiers to deploy a remotely operated rover fitted with a 360-degree live camera from a safety bunker.
Team leader Krishna said the group plans to upgrade the system with thermal night-vision cameras and drone detection. The project has been shortlisted among the top 100 entries for the national-level Young Scientist of India event in Chennai on November 19, with the team aiming to reach the top 20.
The prototypes show how student innovation at the festival was directed towards practical problems involving waste, agriculture, public safety and surveillance. The next reported milestone for Team Quantumbots is the national-level event in Chennai, where it will present its upgraded border-monitoring system.
