Budding engineers asked to take up projects for elderly people

"There is a lot of scope for development of projects for the elderly such as safety front door, walking sticks, auto-off of cooking gas, lights and alarms against falls," he said. 

Natarajan, the countrys first professor in Geriatric Medicine, was delivering his inaugural address at a two-day national workshop on "Healthy Long Life for Senior Citizens," which concludes today. 

The workshop was organised by the Electronics and Communication Engineering department of Sri Sairam Engineering College here. On the occasion, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the college and Dr. V S Natarajan Geriatric Foundation, set up by Natarajan, considered the father of geriatric medicine in the country. 

The MoU is aimed at developing innovative and socially relevant projects in the areas of health and longevity of elderly people and other such research and development activities, a college release said. 

It was inked by CEO of Sairam group of institutions Sai Prakash Leo Muthu and Natrajan, a Padma Shri awardee, who has four decades of hands on experience in the field of care giving to the elderly population. 

Sai Prakash Leo Muthu highlighted the potential of young engineers in developing tools that would be helpful to the elderly people. He also pledged the support of his institutions to the activities of the foundation in furthering its goal of striving for the betterment of the elderly community, the release said.