JOIN USFoldable vehicles dominate design expo
Will ‘foldable, transformable’ vehicles revolutionise the road surface transport scene for passengers in the years to come?
The answers seems ‘Yes’, going by three young Engineering students teams from across the country stealing the show at the just concluded ‘India Inventor Student Design Competition’ at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras here.Varad Patil and Ameya Ganapatye of the Fr C Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Vashi, Navi Mumbai, walked away with the first prize for innovatively designing a ‘foldable bicycle’, amid global concerns to go green by reduction of carbon monoxide (a greenhouse gas) releases into the atmosphere.
A digitalized 3-D model of a ‘foldable three wheeler’ by three students of PSG College of Technology Coimbatore, - Messrs L P A Shanmuganathan, T Manojkumar and B Aravind-, grabbed the second prize in the All-India competition.Not to be left behind was a two-member students team from the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar,- Messrs.
Shashank Agarwal and Dhwanil Shukla-, who were adjudged the third prize for their innovative design of a ‘transformable car’, namely a four-wheeler that can be made into a two-wheeler.
The competition was organized by IIT-Madras and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in association with engineering design software maker Autodesk, B Nagarajan, Deputy Registrar, IIT-Madras said.
Competition
While over 1100 teams from various Engineering colleges in India registered for the competition, more than 400 designs were received for the meet, he said.
The participating ‘student teams’ this year “digitally designed a futuristic or innovative foldable / transformable vehicle using Autodesk products.”
A renowned five-member Jury comprising industry and academic experts evaluated the new designs submitted by the student teams, from among whom the top 12 teams were short-listed in an intensely creative competition.
The three top winners were chosen from that list, pointed out Nagarajan.
Vision
The objective of this All-India competition was to “sensitize young minds to India’s Design requirements and engaged them in developing innovative solutions. In doing so, we hope to nurture budding talent in our country with a focus on the design needs of the Nation,” said Prof M Ramanathan, Department of Engineering Design, IIT-Madras.
While the selected National finalists will take part in a four-day ‘boot camp’ to be held at Singapore from Nov 5, the winners will compete for ‘World Skills India In Mechanical Engineering Design (CAD – Computer Aided Designing)’ at the forthcoming ‘World Skills Competition (WSC)’ the largest skills competition, to be held in Germany in July 2013, Nagarajan said.