KPIT’s national innovation contest draws 1,500 ideas from 10,500 engineers

KPIT, the global technology company specialising in IT consulting and product engineering, has announced the winners of KPIT Sparkle 2017, the national design and development innovation contest for engineering and science students.

Smart Cities was the theme of the competition this year  and centered on creating solutions for smart transportation and smart infrastructure using technology. Sparkle 2017 received a total of 1,500 ideas from over 10,500 students across 300 colleges in India. The 35 shortlisted teams exhibited their solutions through working prototypes at the grand finale, held on February 18-19 at the Deccan College Ground in Pune.

The winners of the contest were evaluated by a panel of eminent jurors and announced at an award ceremony on February 19, where cash prizes of over Rs 20 lakh were awarded. The award ceremony was presided by Union Minister for Human Resources Development, Prakash Javadekar as the guest of honour. Padmashree Dr. Kiran Karnik, former president, NASSCOM was the chief guest.

On display, at the finals, were some interesting and novel projects in areas such as urban mobility, autonomous vehicles, smart electric vehicles and self-learning bots, clean and efficient fuels technology, solutions to recover and clean oil spills, coherent use of energy from plants, wind, solar and waste water and separation of plastics from waste. 

The Winners
- Team AlphaGears from Mangalore Institute of Technology and Engineering won the platinium prize of Rs 10 lakh for its project on frictionless gear transmission system for vehicles using polymagnets. This solution will overcome the drawbacks of present-day mechanical gear systems. Polymagnets can be programmed to provide contact-less torque transmission and inherent overload protection. Additionally, they eliminate wear and suppress vibrations, which in turn reduce costs associated with cooling, lubrication and maintenance.

- Team Robo-X-Prime from R C Patel Institute of Technology, Shirpur, Maharashtra won the gold prize for developing an inspection robot for power transmission lines. In addition to using the power from battery source, the system uses solar panel for operating the device.

- Team Robo-Climb from College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) won the silver prize for its autonomous vehicle solution called 'Wall Climbing Robot', which can be used for transportation of goods as well as passengers over a distance. If the lower surface of flyovers and bridges, and the roofs of tunnels are restructured by employing powerful vacuum accessories, automobiles can be designed to achieve transportation upside down as well as over the walls thus reducing traffic congestion.

- Team Traffic Eye from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani also won silver for its project 'Traffic Eye' to check traffic violations.

- The award for the most popular project went to Team Humanoids from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar for designing an exhaust gas emission control device using plasma technology. The solution results in decreased electric power consumption with no harmful emission of gases in the environment

Commenting on this year’s edition of Sparkle, Ravi Pandit, co-founder, chairman and Group CEO, KPIT said, “We are extremely pleased to see the ideas being presented at the competition evolve every year. The development of smart cities will be pivotal in achieving economic and social advancement of the country, and also give opportunities for bright young minds to design innovative solutions to make our growing urban ecosystem sustainable. Our heartiest congratulations to the winners and all the participating students for their passion and enthusiasm in coming up with ideas that have the potential to radically change the way our cities function.”

Dr. RA Mashelkar, chairman of the Innovation Committee, KPIT said: “Sparkle has grown into a significant platform to foster engineering and science talent from students across the country. The ideas that I saw this year are not only impressive but relevant in solving the real problems that are pertinent in today’s context. I congratulate the winners and wish to tell all the participants to continue to work towards developing more such disrupting solutions.”

KPIT says it will offer the selected finalists job and internship opportunities at KPIT.

Also read: Tech-enabled transportation will be imperative to drive India’s Smart Cities agenda by Ravi Pandit