Offering a helping hand to those living in the flood-affected areas, the students of Mohandas College of Engineering and Technology, along with their professor Neethu U made emergency portable power banks using batteries which can be used by the people in relief camps and those involved in rescue operations so that they can charge their mobile phones to make emergency phone calls.
Around 100 power banks were made and handed over to Mayor V K Prasanth to be sent to Wayanad, Nilambur and Kozhikode which are some of the most worst-affected areas in the recent floods.
Last year when the floods hit the state, the students had planned to make the power banks but it was not successful due to time limitations. This time, about 21 students along with their professor worked together and completed the power banks in just one day. “ One of the main problems that most of the people affected by the floods are facing is the absence of power supply and the difficulty in charging their phones so that they can communicate their family members to convey that they are safe. So, we thought of making this one-time usable power banks which can be used for making emergency phone calls and is handy as well,” said Neethu U, assistant professor, department of electrical engineering.
According to the Neethu, the power banks were made by the electrical engineering students who did not get any prior training to make these power banks. "I taught the students how to make power banks using batteries. We bought the batteries worth Rs 3,000 which was contributed by the students themselves and the power banks were made with a USB cable. People can plug it and use it and after that, it can be discarded," she said. The power banks were made in 8 to 10 hours of time as they wanted to deliver it as soon as possible to the flood-hit areas.
The power banks are made with a facility to charge any kind of smartphone battery by up to 1 hour. The power banks are for use only in the case of emergency and shouldn't be used over a long period of time or it may cause damage to the phone. Preethi says," the prototype of a power bank that I made during the 2018 floods is still working."
The power banks have already been dispatched by the city corporation to the flood-affected areas such as Wayanad and Kozhikode.
