Beyond Academics Reap Benefit Fellowship Program Reap Benefit is a Bangalore based start-up which strives to build the next generation of problem solvers, by involving youth in developing skills, local data and solutions to solve local environment and civic problems concerning waste, water, energy and sanitation through lowcost solutions, which are user-friendly and require low maintenance. The Reap Benefit fellowship program aims at empowering the students with problem-solving skills that can tackle local civic and environmental problems using Local Data, Campaigns, and Solutions. The program gives students a chance to interact with the community directly to solve their problems through methods such as behavioral nudges, and recreating solutions, technologies, and products that follow design methods and practices. The Fellowship program offered students the ability to interact with society on a ground level and work towards People-Centred Solutions. The student coordinators of the fellowship program were Mayuresh Gade, Tanvi Joshi, and Mihir Srivastava who coordinated all activities of the club. There were a total of 63 students who participated in the program and worked on projects like converting urine to manure, creating lowcost waterless urinals, solutions to stop water wastage, etc. The impact of the fellowship program was immense. The students learned and experienced problem-solving through extensive
brainstorming, discussions, research using different design hacks, behavior nudges, etc. and then built on that structure. Students developed a “problem-solving mindset� during this program and created prototypes to validate their thinking process. In the final stage of the program, the students participated in a 2 - day design hackathon conducted on 27th-28th April 2019 where they completed and installed their solutions for a pilot run. There were a number of solutions created like converting urine to manure, creating low-cost waterless urinals, solutions to stop water wastage etc.
ABLED Lab ABLED is a unique Design-Technology lab started in collaboration with Dominix Strategic Design, Pune. The lab aims at creating solutions for individuals with special abilities for disabled individuals in urban and rural India. The members of the lab conduct research, and develop innovative, customized solutions under experienced faculty members and mentors from Dominix Design. Such solutions aim at assisting disabled individuals in their daily lives. This multidisciplinary lab of technology and design experts, and students works with stakeholders including businesses, governments, NGOs or social enterprises and start-ups to introduce such innovations. There were a total of 20 students who participated in the program 53
