Patna: Mayank Tiwari, a final-year chemical science and technology student, who received his degree on Thursday at the IIT-Patna convocation was on Cloud Nine for receiving the proficiency award.

The 23-year-old from Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district has developed a chip which detects a specific toxin present in food material.

The chip can come handy in finding food containing a toxin which is harmful, particularly when consumed in large amounts.

Tiwari said: "The chip developed by me under the supervision of my institute teacher Prolay Das can be useful for people. It works on a simple principle - when the food is injected into a circular-shaped tube, the green colour sensor fitted in the chip turns blue indicating that the food material contains the toxin."

Toxins are substances that can be poisonous or cause negative health effects. Toxins are metals, chemicals, pollutants, artificial food ingredients, pesticides and poisons that can harm the body.

Tiwari, who is working as a project assistant at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, at the departments of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering and the Centre for Biological Science, said: "The chip developed by me detects staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) which is an exotoxin produced by staphylococcus aureus. It is a toxin responsible for staphylococcal food poisoning in humans."

He added: "As my college comes to end, research work on the chip is being carried out in the institute under the supervision of Prolay Das."

Tiwari received the award form the chief guest of the convocation, Padma Shri Manas Bihari Verma, who spoke on encouraging the culture of innovation and collaborative research institutions in institutes like IIT-Patna.

Verma said: "Institutions like IIT must act as breeding grounds for innovation as it leads to excellence." He urged the students to apply their engineering skills in contributing positively to society by taking up projects which will help people of the region in the fields of agriculture, business and other sectors.

Verma has devoted his life to promoting science and technology. Verma (75), is a former programme director of Tejas, India's first indigenous multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft. A close aide of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Verma worked in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for 35 years.

Not only Tiwari, other students from IIT-Patna, too, have developed models with innovative ideas.

Abhishek Kumar, a computer science and engineering passout, has developed a sentiment analysis programme. Abhishek, who hails from Bengal's Durgapur, said: "The Sentiment Analysis can determine whether a piece of writing is positive, negative or neutral. The use of technology is to determine how people feel about a particular topic."